The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-16 00:00:00

THE CITY POLICE.

It will not be uninteresting, after the numerous
attacks which have been made upon the City Ma-
gistrates, to shew the result of their labours, as
committing Justices, between the Session before last
and the last Session. If it appear that the number
of the prisoners convicted bears a more fair propor-
tion to those committed for trial than the county
Magistrates can exhibit, it will be difficult to come
to the decision which lawyers are always dinning in
our ears as the only one to which there should be an
unanimous consent—namely, that all Magistrates
should be chosen from the bar.

The following is an accurate statement of the
June Session of-1829:

Total Cnn. Bills Non
committed. victed. Acquitted. ignored. pros.
Mansion House and
Guildhall
Bow-street
Queen-square
Marylebone
Marlborough-street 105
Hatton-garden
Worship-street
Lambeth-street. . 32
Thames Police
County Magistrates 19 ..... .... 10 .. .... 8

From this statement it will appear that the ac-
quittals are in the country as 38 per cent. upon the
committals, while in the city of London they are as
no more than 121 per cent.
This has been for some years the constant pro-
portion. Last Session was, as the Mansion-house
committals were concerned, a very remarkable one.
In all the cases sent to Newgate from the Justice-room
there was but one acquittal, and that was a charge
of forgery—an offence to the proof of which Juries
look very narrowly, and to counteract a conviction
upon which they willingly listen to any thing like a
palliation.
The unwillingness in the city magistrates to com-
mit where there appears to be but small chance of a
conviction, has been long put in contrast by the
professional men who are in the habit of attending
police-offices with the general practice of the sti-
pendiary magistrates of the county. The Aldermen
will perhaps, with one exception, say, " There is
nothing in this case strong enough to convict, and
Newgate will destroy this poor wretch. He will be
acquitted, but his imprisonment will adapt him for
a greater measure of iniquity." Great pains are
there taken to. inquire into the capability of the
friends or relatives of the accused, and their dispo-
sition to render him service, and those efforts in
favour of a poor uneducated youth are often emi-
nently successful.
With several other Magistrates the case is very
different. The compassion which is daily practised
at the Mansion-house and Guildhall seems to be
cast out from other places, from which it might be
allowed to operate without any injury to parties.
It is an old saying, that some gentlemen in the cow-
mission, in their desire to show their activity, com-
mit every thing that comes before them. This in-
discriminate rigour is not the vice of the City
Magistrates.

In the Consistorial Court to-day a very cu-
rious trial is to take place, in which the defendant is a
Clergyman of the Established Church, and against whom
accusations of a very serious nature have been brought
forward : amongt other charges, he is accused of being
the author of some very indecent songs. The case has
occupied the Court for several years.—lrish Paper of
Tuesday.

A RAT CAUGHT BY A LINIPET.—Rats
are now nearly as widely distributed us men and pigs. It
is curious to observe the shifts to which they hare recourse
for procuring subsistence ; in maritime places they fre-
quently live upon shell-fish, especially limpets, making
predatory excursions among the rocks 4t low water. In
one of the remote Hebrides, a person, going to the ebb to
look for crabs, found a large rat drowned, and, on turning
it over, was surprised to find, that it had been caught by
a limpet; this, as every body knows, is a kind of marine
animal, inhabiting a conical shell, which it keeps close to
the rock, when at rest, but raises, when feeding as well
as upon other occasions, at which time it is very easily
detached by the slightest force, although, when aware of
the presence of an enemy, it sticks so fast as to revirc f!'
smart blow with a stone, or other instrument, Wore it
can be knocked off; the rat had been prowling about in
search of prey, and, spying a goodly limpet, with its shell-
raised, bad attempted to turn it, by inserting his nose under
the shell; the limpet, however, being a powerful animal,
had clung fast, and so held the rat by the nose until be
was drowned. In commemoration of this achievement,
the place was henceforth named " The Rat's Cote.''.--
Edintiryli Literary Gazette.