The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Some of the factious prints of Ireland are
pouring out their abuse upon the Government,
because it has not at once granted the prayer of
the Tipperary magistrates in all its parts, as
agreed to at the recent meeting. The magis-
trates, it will be remembered, prayed for more
measures than one. They called for the Insur-
rection Act, which it seems has expired,—thst
surely is not the fault of the Irish Government,
every member of which would be likely " to hear
of it, ' if he concurred in perpetrating such an
outrage upon the law of the land. Next, the
Tipperary gentlemen demanded that all unlicensed
trms should be taken away from their possessors ;
hut they were themselves aware that an amend-
ment of the " arms act" was requisite, before
either the weapons already concealed by the pea-
santry could be searched for, or a penalty be an-
nexed to their illegitimate possession. Yet, be-
cause at a Council held lately in the Phmnix-
park, it is alleged by the Orange prints that
neither the Insurrection Act (which is not law),
—nor the search for arms (which, under the ex-
isting law, would be burglary),—nor the scatter-
ing the King's troops among the Tipperary vil
lages (which would destroy the army),— because
none of these measures have been put in force
(for the two former of which the Lord Lieutenant
would lose his head, and for the last of which
Sir John Byng would deserve to lose it),—
therefore " the magistrates of one of the most
respectable portions of the country have been
treated contemptuously." Beyond a doubt, if
to govern them without law, or in defiance &' it.
be a mark of respect for any nation, it is a specie:i
of homage which the people of Ireland have not
much reason to complain of their rulers withhold-
ing. -But it appears from other and more credit-
able authorities than those to which we have al-
luded, that the excitement throughout the coun-
try is beginning to subside,—that the troops are
concentrating instead of being more dispersed,—
and that no means to remedy or to mi:igate dis-
order can be employed by Government, in addi-
tion to those furnished by the ordinary administra-
tion of justice, but an increase of the police force,
and an augmentation of the stipendiary magistrates.
We have often borne testimony to the cruel po-
sition in which the Irish police have been placed,
since the co-operation of the troops were with-
drawn from them, and since they had been com-
pelled, with their own scanty and unaided num-
bers, to encounter the collective animosity of
myriads of country people assembled at fairs,
and other occasions of riot. It is impossible in
such cases that six or eight police-men should
be enough dreaded by the multitude to ensure
its obedience to mere warnings or threats of
eventual coercion. Savages, especially drunken
ones, are always presumptuous, and daring", to-
the very brink of danger. While the police-men
are levelling their pieces, the rioters throw stones
to the last moment. Then comes the fire,—
their lives are lost,—and because they are not
the lives of the constabulary, the latter are ac-
cused of murder, and if not hanged, whether
right or wrong, the highest functionaries of the
state are charged with screening them from the
gallows. Nobody, we hope (except the Cum-
berland-faction), will be disposed to palliate the
insolence or intemperance of policemen. No
reasonable person can approve the impoliey of
recruiting them from members of one church to
the exclusion of another, when so many collateral
causes of jealousy have arisen between this two
communions in their character of separate sects,
But full allowance being made for undisciplined
insolence in the police force, and for its ill-
judged composition, we are persuaded that in
19 cases out of 20, the multitude are the aggres-
sors, and the peace-officers are put on self-de-
fence. It is said that a greater number of police-
men will entail a large expense upon the country :
of course it will—and what then ? If the gen-
tlemen and county magistrates cannot contrive to
protect life and properly without extra help, it is
not for them at least to complain that they can-
not have their remedy for nothing. So with re-
gard to stipendiary magistrates : the expense of
them is not worth a moment's thought. A good
deal was done when an Irish country gentleman
was first prevented from administering injustice
in his own parlour. Petty Sessions was a grand
improvement on the preceding mode : an im-
provetnent of far higher value would be the aboli-
tion, not of parlour law merely, but of petty ses-
sions country-gentlemen-law ; and the transfer of
both to a paid magistrate, of a certain standing at.
the bar, and selected from it by the Chancellor and
Judges. Divide each county into districts ; let
each district have its barrister, always resident,
holding petty sessions once in ten days, and
meeting all his brethren at the county sessions,
adjourned from month to month. The peasantry
would soon discern the amended spirit in which
their injuries were redressed and their ill actions
punished, and one grand source of exasperation
against the gentlemen would be sensibly aura
speedily exhausted. In Tipperary we nevertheless
apprehend that it will be inevitable to reinforce
the executive power.—Times.

We promised in the Chronicle of yesterday
to examine a little more in detail the assertion of
the Examiner respecting the intelligence of tho
French commonalty. The words of our con-
temporary are—,, why conjure up these ghosts
of deceased popular follies to scare us from Re-
form ; and, after all, inform us of that curious
truth, which we hope most Chronicle readers
had the shrewdness to perceive, that times past
are not times present ? After arriving at this
conclusion, should not our contemporary, we
must ask, see the propriety of making the mmende
to the French people, whose unfitness for poii'er
he has shown by illustrating the probable abuse
of it by the conduct, not indeed of themselves at
a former period, but of another nation at a for-
mer period ! The truth is, Mat the French
commonalty is at this moment the most
gent of any in the world." We know not how
our contemporary arrived at this conclusion, as
to the intelligence of the French commonaltY,
meaning by commonalty the body of the peopl'e.
If they are more intelligent than other mo,,
tpleeeyulimarutOt Itilaieemswel7ess.oflot bdtoaeinsint,otlitatieloilli thatnee
a person is intelligent becauPe he can read and
write, but we believe it has generally been un-
derstood that a person who cannot write or read
can hardly be deemed very intelligent. Now a
far greater proportion of the French are in the
predicament of being unacq_rauii,i:inted with letters
eSi_tna ttlehleai
enncillill‘llll\l7itbiiit
festlGie
eirognfeaiptb.vounerss:
&c. vol. 14 (sup.
alesia n
Sciences
eyn oc
the following woful account of the deficiency ill
plementary volume), of 1828, p. 25, we 'hue
those humble acquirements of reading and writ-
ointgpariinmoanrgy olunsrtrnuecigtihobnoiiitrlsv:
of children of an aria to fr • • •
frequent primary schools
is nearly 0,000,000. Now of this number
scarcely a million and a half receive
instruction.
Thus, -without speaking"
of`' ten millions of adults,
who are ignorant of the
first elements, four

lions and a half of young French do not learn
either to read or write. The girls amount at
least to a third of the number of children who
attend public schools. Out of nearly 40,000
communes, there are not 24,000 which are pro-
vided with schools for boys ; the schools are in
number nearly 27,000, of which perhaps 5 or
600 are coiiducted according to the method of
ministerial instruction." M. Charles Dupin, in
a comparisOn of popular instruction with the in-
dustry of the departments, according to the ex-
position of 1827, presented in the second Sit-
ting of bis Course of Geometry and Mechanics
for the'Working Classes, the 25th December,
1827, contrasts in this way the north and
south pf the kingdom :—" If I resume the
facts indicated in this Sitting, to compare
in 1827, as I did last year for another expo-
sition, the popular instruction and the industry
of the north and south of the kingdom, I find
as definite result :—Children ztt school in the
thirty-two departments of the north, 740,846. •
In the fifty-four departments of the south, •
375,931." Speaking of Paris, he says—" We
must distinguish in Paris two populations : the
population already enlightened, and the popula-
tion which still remains to be enlightened ; the

former, which comprehends at most 100,000
souls, is, I will undertake to say, in the foremost
rank among the civilized populations of Europe.
It is this part of the citizens of the capital which
produces all the chefs d'a?uvre of sciences, let-
ters, and the arts, which make Paris the Athens
of modern nations. It is this part of the citi-
zens which gains the medals of industry, and
which possesses, in short, an instruction which
must be termed popular, when applied to
100,000 souls—an instruction, I say, more ele-
vated than is possessed by any other population
condensed in a city. Let us labour to raise the

800,000, who are backward, to the rank of
honour and instruction to which the hundred
thousand Grenadiers of French civilization have
with so much courage attained." There is a
full account of the state of education in France
in a work by Dr. Johnson, published by Messrs.
Simpkin and Marshall, about two years ago, of
which there is a very copious abstract in the
Scotsman. In another article in the Scotsman
for Oct. 27, 1827, when examining the Reports
on the State of Education in Ireland, the state
of education in the different countries of Europe
is thus briefly described :—" If we estimate the
population Of Ireland in 1824 at 7,500,000, the
children at school will amount to nearly one-
thirteenth part of the inhabitants. In Scotland,
the children at school form one-ninth part of the
population ; in England they are only about
one-sixteenth, in Holland one twelfth, in Prussia
one-eighteenth, and in France one-thirtieth."—
But if we deduct the north of France, the 32 de-
partments of which have 740,846 children at
school, the remaining 54 departments, about
two-thirds of the country, with only 375,931,
must be pretty nearly on a level with Spain.—
The north of France is greatly below the worst
pans of England; but the south will not bear a
comparison with any portion of the Empire. M.
de Staei Holstein, who twice visited this coun-
try, and whose comparison of England and
France has generally been allowed the praise of
great fairness, observes, in his Letters published
in 1825 :

" Let not, however, a sentiment of national pride
serve to deceive us. We should err if we were tu
judge of the condition of the two nations, if we
were to compare the intellectual summits. This
point of comparison would give to France an appa-
r?nt advantage, which would be unfortunately con-
tradicted by an observation of the real state of the
inaises.

" I .in certain that there would be found in the
moral elite of the French nation, more minds en-
dowed kk ith the faculty of generalizing their ideas,
connecting them with philosophical principles, and
expressing: them in a brilliant or original manner,
both in books and in conversation. I believe also,
that in descending to the other extremity of the
scale, there would be found in the classes destitute
of instruction more natural vivacity, more aptitude
to seize new ideas, more of that instinctive spirit
with which the sun inspires the inhabitants of the
countries which he favours. But a few men of abi-
lity or even genius, a few bold thinkers, or a few
ingenious theorists, do not constitute the moral and
political force of a nation. This force consists in a
Ittedium intelligence, in the general knowledge of
the principles and practical institutions to which the
direction of human affairs appertains, This medium
intelligence makes the statesman, the jurisconsult,
the manufacturer, the merchant, in a word, all the
active memlegs of a well-organized community.
And in this respect, there is no eountey in Europe
Which (-In sustain a parallel with England.
" Our GeOrnetricians are more profound, our en-
gineek s more learned; their mechanics, their manu-
facturers surpass ours in number and practicable
ability. Jim some one of our departments primary
instruction will be found more general than in some
counties of Great Britain; Alsace is certainly very
superior in this repeet to the provinces of the centre
and south of England (for Westmorland and thei
South of Scotland excel in this respect every other
country of Europe, some portions of Switzerland
excepted) ; but where should we find on the other
side of the Channel a whole province where, as in
Brittany, there is hardly for every 500 individuals
.one child that goes to schogl ? Where should we
16nd populous towns, head places of departments,
destitute of all intellectual resources, without any in-
stitution for education—without any bookseller's
stop, except this name be given to a paltry place
whore a few mass-books are to be found, with two
or three bad novels ? Such is, however, the mise-
rable condition of the most (la phtpart) of our
provinces, and such is the country where the Go-
verntnent, far from calling to its aid all possible means
of intellectual culture, tar from encouraging with
gratitude the efforts of particular philanthropy,
seems to exert itself to discourage and restrain them."

So much for the intelligence of the mass of
the French nation. We may be mistaken in
supposing it possible that the French Law of
1817, which made the qualification to vote the
payment of 300 francs of taxes, gave an advan-
tage to the Liberals; but we observe that the
Ultras objected to that law, that it was unfa-
vourable to the Royalists, as the class who paid
S3O francs were opposed to the body of the na-
tion, wiiich was Royalist, and to the great pro-
prietors. The modification of that law allowed
the 300 fraees to remain the qualification for the
arrondissement, but took a certain number who
paid 1,000 francs, and who voted, besides, in
the arrondissements, to return a certain portion
of the Representatives for the Departments. If
our Contemporary wishes, we sll2ll quote abun-
dance of passages from the writings of AI.
Fievee and other Ultras of the time, accusing
the NO francs qualificators of favouring Libe-
ralism. Wherever the population was active and
intelligent, the returns in 1827 were Liberal ;
where it was otherwise, the returns were Mini-
vte.rial. In an article in the Revue Trimes-
trielle for January, 1828, on the Elections of
11527, the writer observes--

•" We shall offer a few general observations, in-
dependent of persons and relative to population.
Paris, Lyons, Bourdeaux, Nantes, the departments
bordering, on the Seine and the Loire; all these
which are remaikable for much activity, industry,
emulation in whatever way; all those where Capi-

als and persons circulate with rapidity and facility;
all these made elections favourable to the opinions
and interests which characterise our epoch and the
new generation. Marseilles and Lille, where the
Ministry obtained a smA majority, bad still impos-
ing minorities, which serve to confirm our observa-
tion. On the other hand, the departments which
are mountainous, remote, inert, with bad commu-
nications, poor, gross in their habits, in their culti-
vation, in their industry, were not in a condition to
resist the weight of ministerial influence. Such
were Le Jura, Le Lot, Le Cantal, l'Aveyron,
l'Ardeche, l'Arriego; les Hautes-Pyreness, les
Landes. The quarters of Brittany where the Los
Breton is spoken, where French is almost a learned
1 inguage, and consequently the action of a free press
is almost paralysed, also elected Ministerial De-
puties."

We thus see that the franchise is exercised more
judiciously by an intelligent than by an ignorant
population. If then it so happens that the great
body of a people are so ignorant that only one
million out of six can read at all, it is but
reasonable to infer that the same ignorance which
causes improper returns in the backward depart-
ments will be felt injuriously elsewhere. But we
by no means wish to infer that universal suffrage
would be as dangerous in England as in France.
In England the population of towns is far greater,
and even our villages are in constant communica-
tion with time great towns. The mechanics have
in many places actually more leisure for reading
than their masters; and in this metropolis we are
inclined to believe many classes of workmen are
little, if at all, inferior to the middle classes. It
would be, in respect to England, merely a ques-
tion how far this character is applicable to the
lower classes generally. So far then from think-
ing that injury has been done to the French by
the comparison with England, we think that the
English have most reason to complain. We have
said enough, we think, to satisfy our contempo-
rary, that whatever may be thought (dour doubts
as to the expediency of universal suffrage, his
own assertions are more objectionable.—Morn-
ing Chronicle.

The prosecutions for libel, which the Duke
of Wellington has commenced against a Morn-
ing Paper, have surprised those who were in the
habit of representing the Premier as indifferent
to the praise or censure of the daily Press. We

never thought that indifference to the voice of

public opinion was consistent with the character
of a great man ; on the contrary, superior minds
have been always peculiarly sensitive on the sub-

ject of their fame. Carelessness of reputation is
not a quality to be admired in any man. It im-
plies, not dignity of spirit, but dulness of moral
feeling. But, though a spotless fame has al-
ways been dear to men of noble ambition, we
never knew they were remarkable for vindicating

t by actions or indictments for libel. Such

modes of supporting reputation, and of making
opinion silent or submissive, they have generally
left to beings of a lower element, who cannot
trust to history for vindication, or to perso►►s of
dubious character, whose " good name" always
stands i►► need of artificial support. The cha-
racter of the Duke of Wellington belongs to
history—his fame is under the protection of a
higher tribunal than a Court of Criminal
Jurisdiction. It is, like that of Marl-
borough, identified with the perils and the
glories of I►is country, and, like his, inseparable
from proud and splendid recollections. Political
detraction assailed Marlborough in the evening
of his days, but his fame has outlived it. He
did not indict his calumniators. He did not
attempt to silence opinion by a criminal prose.
cution. He did not avail himself of the advan-

tubes which the law of libel affords to an accuser,
and which law is admirably framed for the sup-
pression, and not the elucidation, of truth.—
Charged with an abandoned disregard of the in-
terests of his country, his defence was written in

the records of her glory and the humiliation of
her enemies. It was reserved for the Duke of
Wellington to rival the fame of that great man,
and he ought not to descend from the eminence
to which his talents and fortune have raised him,

to enter the arena of a Criminal Court with a
political assailant in the daily Press. We never
heard of Mr. Pitt, or Mr. Fox, or Mr. Perceval,
or Mr. Canning, indicting a Journalist for the
freest, the boldest, or even the most scurrilous
attacks on their Ministerial skill or political mea-
sures.' Few Statesmen ever experienced more of
the freedom, or even the licentious liberty of
the Press than they did, more especially
Mr. Canning, who obtained a much greater
triumph for his character by resting it on
its own nierits than he could have achieved by
throwing over it the shield of criminal law. We
differed from the policy of Mr. Canning—we
were not among the number of those who offered
to his brilliant, but erratic genius, the incense of
adulation. We felt it our duty to point out the
dangerous courses into which his seductive elo-
quence was likely to mislead the country. We
exposed the errors of his Statesmanship with
fearlessness, but, we trust, with decorum. There
were others whose zeal carried them much far-
ther, and by whom he was stigmatized in terms
not more agreeable to a mind solicitous of' ho-
nour than those which have been in some in-
stances applied to the Duke of Wellington. His
disdaining to silence the more violent hostility
of the Press was the best protection of the .faine

that it assailed. This tribute we gladly render
to his memory. Was not the Earl of Eldon
exposed, during the greater part of his political
and judicial life, to the severest, and, frequently,
the most envenomed animadversion of what is
called the " liberal" Press ? Did_he ever admit
that his enemies were so successful in defam-
ing him as to cause him to fly for protec-
tion to the law? Did he ever drag a journa-
list into a Court of Justice when the phials
of " liberal" detraction were poured out with-
out measure upon his head ? He has lived to
find that detraction pass away, as unmerited
censure always does, leaving his judicial charac-
ter spotless in the eyes of his country. We
have supported the Duke of Wellington in his
present high office when we thought him right ;
we have as freely differed from him when we be-
lieved him wrong. It is matter of opinion whe-
ther the measures of a Statesman are conducive
to the interests of the nation : every man has a
right to his opinion on the subject—every jour-
nalist ought to have the privilege of discussing
public measures, and criticising the conduct of
public men, with fearless independence. If his
views be false—if his language be intemperate or
coarse, the good sense of the public will rectify
the fallaciousness of the former, and its good
taste will revolt from the scurrility of the latter.
If political criticism be true, it ought to be in-
violable—if it be erroneous or malignant, it
ought to be left to be despised or forgotten, as
it surely will. History, when sitting in judg_
ment on the memories of great men, will not
search for the materials of her pure and final de-
cree in the records of a Criminal Court. Cer-
tainly she will never look there to obtain the
means of rightly measuring the genius and esti-

mating the character of the modern Scipio,
whose destiny has led him to the proud distinc-
tion of conquering the Hannibal of the age.—
Monling Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

A pauper named Smith, who has arrived at an
advanced age, and was in the habit of taking-wives
from different parishes for the sake of the fortunes
given with them by the different overseers, in order
to get rid of them, was again brought before the
LORD MAYOR. The charge against him on this .oc-
casion was, that he had scaled the walls of the
workhouse of Bishopsgate at right, for the purpose
of keeping an appointment which he had made with
a female pauper, to whom it is believed he intends
to unite himself at the decease of his present wife,
who is in a declining state of health, and whose
fortune he had contrived to spend in three days in
the tap-room of the Brown Bear public-house.
The LORD MAYOR asked the defendant whether
he was looking after another wife ? The defendant
said that he was not seeking to make himself more
miserable. Ile had had but few wives, and would
not have any more. He was also willing to pledge
himself not to overleap the walls of the workhouse

again.
The officers having expressed a willingness not
to proceed further in the matter, the pauper was
discharged. He was, while in the Justice-room, a
great object of attention to several female paupers,
who appeared against their respective parish officers.
BOW-STREET.

Yesterday Charles Stairs, who stands charged
with having drawn a cheque upon the Petersfield
Bank for 71. 13s. without having any effects to meet
it, was brought up for re-examination.
It appeared that the prisoner passed the cheque in
question to Mr. Dutton, the shoe-maker, of St.
Martin's-passage, on the evening of Saturday, the
6th instant, receiving 3/. on account, and promising
to call on the Monday, for the balance. The cheque
was made payable at the banking-hous: of Williams
and Co., who are the town agents of the Petersfield
Barak, and when it was presented them by Mr.
Dutton's foreman, he was told that there were no

effects,—that the blank cheque had been improperly
obtained, and that the drawer was not known at the
Petersfield Bank. The prisoner having called two
or three times at Mr. Dutton's shop to receive the
balance, was taken into custody on Thursday last,
charged with the fraud.
The prisoner denied the charge, and declared that
he had no intention whatever to defraud any one.—
He stated that a person, residing near Petersfield,
wrote to him to say that he had received 71. 13s. on
his account and wished to know how he should remit
it to him. He (the prisoner) directed his agent to pay
the money in his name into the Petersfield bank, and

in the full belief that his desire had been complied
with, he drew the cheque in question, having been
accommodated with the blank by a respectable wine-
merchant in Mark-lane. He then prayed for further
time, to enable him to write to the country, and Sir
Richard Birnie remanded him until yesterday, when
a solicitor appeared on his behalf, and after re-
stating the circumstances, urged that his client had
acted perfectly fair, and without the slightest inten-
tion to commit a fraud.

Sir RICHARD 13IRNIE asked if any proof to that
effect could be brought forward ; if so, he %vas will-
ing to receive it.—The solicitor replied, that parties
had been written to in the country, but their an-
swers had not us yet arrived. The prisoner was a
gentleman of great respectability, and quite inca-
pable of committing a dishonest action.
Sir R. BIRNIE—What business does he follow ?
Solicitor—He lives upon his fortune.

Prisoner—l am in the habit of drawing my in-
come by cheques upon the London agents of country
bankers, and have never been even suspected until
now, although it has sometimes happened that the
sums which I expected. to receive had not been paid
in until after my cheques had been presented.
Sir R. BIRNIE—You have had time enough since
last Thursday to have head from Petersfield. Pri-
soner—l have to complain of the treatment I met
with in the House of Correction, where I have been
confined since then. In the full persuasion that I
could write to my friends to apprise them of my si-
tuation, I applied for pen, ink, and paper, but these
were denied me, by order of the Governor, who
even refused to allow me to send a letter to the post,
which I had previously written.
Sir R. BIRNIE said he could scarcely believe that
the new Governor had acted in the arbitrary-man-
ner described. If he could be satisfied of the fact, he
should certainly report his conduct to the proper
quarter.

The prisoner was then remanded at his own re-
quest until Thursday next.
William Miles and James Hudson were charged
with stealing upwards of -50 volumes of books in
boards, the propdrty of Mr. Charles Taylor, the
bookseller, of Fleet-street, and a young lad, named
G4orge Robinson, employed by a stock-broker in the
city, was charged with having received the same,
knowing them to have been stolen.
Mr. Taylor, although quite satisfied of the guilt
of the parties, was unable to swear to a single
volume of tlye books produced, and consequently the
prisoners were discharged.