The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-12 00:00:00

SilltiT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

II

We have before spoken of the state of pauper luna-
tics in. the county of Middlesex, and of the necessity of
providing a practical remedy for their present helpless
got
liv the establishment of an Asylum. We have
pt some documents on the subject, for which we have
not at present room, but which we shall take an early op-
portunity of laying before the public. In the mean time
we cannot help expressing our surprise, as well as regri,t,
thAt whilst we have infirmaries for local complaints of the
body springing up everywhere, no establishment, purely
charitable, for the more distressing maladies of the mind
is as yet instituted. By " establishments purely cha-
ritable," we do not mean dependent on voluntary contri-
bution. We mean an establishment for those who pos-
sess no funds of their own, but whose support, medical
attendance, and moral treatment, shall be fixed upon the
firm basis of the laws. We believe that the pauper luna-
tics in this county, being at present " let out" by their
respective parishes, suffer most cruelly; that proper means for
their restoration are neglected ; that they are considered as a mere
article of trade, and are treated accordingly. Be it observed,
they cannot complain. They are not like other paupers ; they
cannot call in the aid of the Magistrate : they are, in the most
important 'sense of the word, speechless ! This subject, so im-
portant and so interesting to humanity, has been undertaken by
Lord Robert Seymour. We trust his Lordship will receive the
support of the MagiStracy of the county—we mean their active,
zealous, and energetic support ; for, as to the support of mere
assent and approbation, that, no man, whether in or out of the
Magistracy, can deny him. But more is necessary.— Times.
„,
Ire are not sufficiently acquainted with such matters to
know whether the Court of King's Bench will interfere to
compel Magistrates to bind out poor children to chimney-
sweepers, when they give apparently valid reasons for not
' doing so ; but we should be inclined to suppose that the
Court will not. We are not, however, among the class of
those pilling philanthropists who would persuade us that
loathsome trades can be abolished, and that the world can
go on without dustmen, scavengers, chimney•sweeps, and
various other very useful and necessary, but certainly not
very desirable, occupations. Where, however, the Legisla-
ture has assigned a discretion even ip, subordinate authori-
ties, if that discretion be honestly and fairly, even though
mistakenly exercised, without corruption, partiality, or
caprice, we do not think that it would be desirable to see
its independence and free-agency controlled in the way
which was talked of on the occasion to which these observations
refer. In this view of the matter we are, however, taking an
extreme view of the case, cad are very far from hinting that the
Magistrates are mistaken in the course they have pursued. On
the contrary (laying even feeling and humanity entirely out of the
question), we think that they have offered very valid reasons why-
orphan children should not be disposed of in the manner pro-
posed. We were happy to perceive, by the returns lately made
to Parliament of the number of children bound to this noisome
trade, many of the parishes are stated to abstain altogether from
so disposing of any of their poor—an example which we should
be glad to see followed, since it has not been set by the most
wealthy and important of them.—Morning Herald.

This case of Mr. Wellesley and his children was brought
yesterday before the Court of Chancery, just before the
rising of the Court. Those dread words—the Day of
Judginent—Were dinned once more in the Lord Chancel-
lor's ears, by Mr. Hart; but the Day of Judgment seems
like the Indian's sun, to be as far off at the end of the
Chace as the beginning. " The papers I have read," said
his Lordship, " now amount to such a mass, that I really
!don't think I could carry them across the hall."—" I
have read the papers," he afterwards observed, "in this
Wellesley case, and have forgotten them, and have read
them again ; and I ought, of all persons in the world, to
be most anxious to finish my part of the business as soon
as possible." Still, however, though his Lordship has
more affidavits than he can carry either on his broad
shoulders or in his capacious head, and though he laments
his hard fate in being thus obliged to read and forget, and re-
read end re-forget, he is still ready to receive more. When he
was told by Mr. Hart, that if he suffered the case to go on as
.
it 1;31 hitherto gone on, the mass would be twice as great ;
he, with a generous forgetfulness of his own sufferings,
'and, indeed, pf the sufferings of all other parties denied
justice by the engrossing claims on him of this endless
case, exclaimed, " If the parties wished to offer other
affidavit!, nothing in the world would prevent his taking
them into consideration." No .sooner had he said the
l.word, than the Secretary handed up a sealed packet of
LRapets to him, which, having opened, he, with much
armth and emphasis, exclaimed, " How am I to give
judgment, when this is the case? Here are papers which
Lll-
_re handed up to me for the first time—affidavits in this
case; --1 do say, that a Judge is not fairly treated who is
constantly
fed with fresh evidence, and as constantly re-
quired to
give jadgment before he has had an opportunity
of reading the affidat,l." We think nothing can be more
unreasonable, than to ask -bid Lordship for judgment at all,
when he honestly tells the parties, that as long as they
supply him with affidavits, he will receive and read them;
and that should there even be an intermission in the supply
of fresh affidavits, lie must begin to re-read the old, which
he has forgotten. So long as any party has a desire to
avoid the last judgment, he has only to supply fresh affi-
davits ; and while the means of obtaining affidavits exists,
it would be as idle to think of their coming to an end in
such a case, as it would be to think of exhausting the hog of Allen.
In the case of infants who cannot take cars of themselves,
said his Lordship, feelingly, I will refuse no information ;
and the subject of the case being the education of these in-
fants, the time for education on this principle may be
gone by when it is decided what education they shall re-
ceive. As the children in some of Lope do Vega's playa are grey-
beards before they quit the stage, on this principle, the question,
how an infant should be educated, might perhaps be ripe for deci-
sion when the infant approaches four score. But thus it is to have
a perfect Judge and a perfect Court—a Court fit for the glorious
days, when men were not hurried with such uncomfortable rapi-
dity through this wicked, hut very pleasing world. This case
certiiinly is of the deepest interest, for it involves the domestic
rights of every i'saaily in the kingdom. Admiring, as we do,
the great love of justice of the Chancellor, we cannot wonder that
a f. her should, at the same time, feel some anxiety to be restored to
the natural and legal right of having the care and guardianship of
his own children, But we refrain from delivering any opinion
pendente lite. There is, however, unc opinion which we must
be pardoned for expressing even now, pendente (pendente) life,
-klis Lordship is said to have censured the publication of some
affidavits which had been made on the part of Mr. Wellcaley.
With all submission to the Chancellor, his Lordship might be
most respectfully requested to remember that the affidavit, against
Mr. Wellesley' were. published, if not litiratini, at least in sub-
stance, in every paper in London—Dr. Bulkeley's, the woman
Scott's, &c. &c. Now, this publication, much more reprehensible,
we contend, because it was expnrte, whereas the publication on
the othei side-was only in answer to those which. had been pub-
lished, was not rebuked, nor censured ; and not having been so,
there may be some
apology' for those who have fallen under his
-,` ordship's displeasure. At' any rate (and we do not mean to be
the-alogists 'for.Mr. Wellesley), we may safely hope that his
Lordship, will find in his own feelings some excuse for any viola-
tion of the itr,:rt practice of the Court, in a case which his Lord-
4hip himzelfh,l4l,rounced to be without precedent, and in which
his Lordship's iteelsctscd
„must lead to the most important conse-
quences, not only as they will affect the present proceeding, but
every future one in which preteitz shall be scught for•depriving
a Either of the care-of his own' children.-,0111;r' iry Chronicle.
--It would be a very-unprofitable application
.. of time to
endeavour to conjecture what the resolution may be, which
under the combined or alternating influence of bigotry,
fear, obstinacy and eaprice, -Ferdinand
and his Council-
tors may finally adopt. - The future conduct of the men
who rule at Madrid cannot be inferred either from their
declarations or from their interests. Their want of ho-
nesty is such, .that it would be 'childishness to give the
least credittotheir assurances : their stupidity and their
ignorance is too extreme, to male it safe to assume, that
61(.1, will not violate the plainest dictates of common sense
and common prudence. But though the resolutioni or
Ferdinand and his Camarillo depend on elements which
defy ail rational calculation, the consequences of those reso-
!Miens will be beyond the control of apostolical caprice, and.
they are of a nature which may be anticipated with no small
- eonfidenee, Suppose him to maintain an aspect ofsull en hos-
tility. to the Portuguese Constitution—to muster troops-on
'the Portuguese frontier---and to continue to excite-and assist
.the Portuguese rebels—what effect- will these.menaces