The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-17 00:00:00

be able to ass ume that attitude is most desirable.
-None but those whO would " counsel dis-
honour" to her can think otherwise. But •
though the " giant's strength" be excellent, it
is not always necessary that it should be put forth.
Besides, it does not follow, we imagine, that
because the Government may have got rid of one
incubus, there is, therefore, none remaining
which " speaks peace" as an almost necessary
consequence of its " dead weight." That second
incubus, unfortunately, exists in the debt with
which former wars have encumbered us, and
which must and will, to a certain degree, aweigh
down and paralyse our energies till some great
effort shall be made, consistent with justice, to
shake off from the lion's mane some of its heavy
appendages. One part of the question we would
dispose of in an instant, and that is by saying
that with Portugal we ought to have nothing to
do. Whether Don Miguel or his niece possess
the Crown of that country is nothing to us.—
Already, by the absurd policy of Mr. Canning,
. has this country been once involved in this use-
less question, in which we have acquired neither
fame nor gratitude ; and it would be the height
of folly, with such recent experience befbre, our
eyes, were we to embark afresh in a matter in
which we are sure to acquire enemies, and al e
, but little likely to conciliate friends. Such
I Quixotism would do but little credit to a country
revelling in wealth, and grown wanton for want
of blood-letting ; but for this country, which
possesses no such signs of repletion, and who is
' bound above all others to husband her resources

till a case of real necessity arises, would be
a step of such a character as we should be
slow to suspect the Duke of Wellington of tak-
ing. On the necessity or not of our interfering
in what is going on in the East of Europe, we
are not prepared to pass so decisive a judgment.
The policy and encroachments of Russia are too
gigantic and appalling to be viewed with apathy
by any British Statesman.—Morning Herald.
It is impossible for us not to concur in Mr.
Peel's view of the inefficiency of the Police of
the Metropolis, as we have long been endea-
vowing to bring that subject under the notice of
Government, with a view to some practical re-
form. The state of the nightly watch is quite
disgraceful to a civilised people. It is, as at
present constituted, a mockery of protection, and
an additional nuisance to many others in this
great city which ought to be abated. Nor is
there, as experience shows, any reasonable hope
of its improvement while under parochial con-
troul. We do not like to see popular rights
abridged, or popular privileges seized into the
hands of the Crown ; but if' popular bodies will
be so imbecile and corrupt as to make their va•
luahle privileges only subservient to mismanage-
ment and jobbing, the sooner they are deprived
of them the better. Aoy change in the Police
of the Metropolis must be au improvement, for
it is impossible for it to be worse. It is an in-
sult to common sense to suppose that the infirm,
decrepit, ill-paid persons, who are generally se-
lected by the parish authorities to form the
nightly watch could be effective guardians of
our lives and property against nocturnal out-
rage, or capable of resisting the temptation of
a paltry bribe to connive at the offences which
they are appointed to prevent. When we hear
of nine pence a -night being paid by parishes to
individuals for the performance of 4 duty which,
if done well, must be one
.of the most
harassing and laborious that a man can un-
dertake, we are not surprised that so
many houses are broken into, and rob-
bed at night, but are only astonished
that there are not more. Such miserable pay-
ment must make the watchmen, of necessity,
endeavour to eke out a subsistence by the guilty
produce of their violated trust. But, while the
parish police are so poorly paid, are the inhabi-
tants of the parishes lightly taxed to maintain
them ? Is it from an extreme sense of economy
that the parochial authorities are so sparing of
the public money to _useful purposes? For an-
swers to these questious we refer to the history
of parish jobbing, feasting, and peculation, in all
parts of London and Westminster, which we
have for some years exposed. " These men
have abused their stewardship, therefore let
them be no longer stewards." A Government
Board will, at all events, have more unity of
action than the scattered and unconnected bodies
into which the metropolitan Police is, at present,
broken. Such 4 Board will, on that ground
alone, be capable of acting more effectivey than
the parish juntas, and its members will be more
immediately under the observation of the Legis-
lature, and the eye of public opinion. As to
the increase of crime in the metropolis of late
years, on which Mr. Peel dwelt so much iii his
speech on this subject, we admit it in principle,
but not in the degree, for a considerable propor-
tion of it is certainly more apparent than real,
and arises from the temptation held out by one
of Mr. Peel's Bills to the instituting of frivolous-
prosecutions, by allowing the prosecutor in such
cases his expellees. As an illustration, our Old
Bailey report of Thursday contained an account
of a trial of two of the lowest order of unfortu-
nate women on the charge of robbing a man of
a toothpick, a button value Id., and three half-
pence farthing. It appeared in evidence that the
prosecutor and the prisoners had beets
iriuk-
ing together for two whole days, and on
the second night the abase valuable property
got into the hands of the prissiness. Now
it is our opinion that the three actors in this
scene of drunken depravity ought, upon going
before a Magistrate, to have been all packed off
to the tread-mill for a nice;tb, where the prose-
cutor might have an opportunity of ppoling down
into sober habits, and reflecting upon the in-
convenience of keeping bad company. But,
no ; a charge of highway robbery is trumped up
out of this affair—no less then three Bow-street
officers appear as witnesses in Contt—one car-
rying into Court the button, value one penny
.!
—the second producing the three halfpence far-
thing, of whicit he had taken charge, and the
third exhibiting the tooth-pick, the value of
which we are not informed, but suppose that it
must be beneath that of any coin isnown to the
reales! This is what, we believe, political C'e.cs
nomists cell a " division of labour," and it is
accounted for on this plain principle, that under
Mr. Peel's Bill the prosecutor and his witnesses
were allowed their expellees, or else it is not
likely that this case would ever have been heard
of in Court, Now can we be astonished at the
increase of frivolous prosecutions when this but-
ton, tooth-pick, &c., cost the country 151., and
will ultimately cost the country considerably
more, Still we admit that serious crimes have,
in a certain degree, increased of late years ; all
we contend for on this point is, that many
charges which now come into our criminal Courts
would not be prosecuted except for the premium
afforded by the Bill in question. Before we
quit the subject of the state of the Police, for
the present, we would recommend Mr. Peel to
try if he cannot extend the provisions of his in-