The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-26 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three o'Cluch

If a Commission be appointed, the first criminals
who ought to be put upon their trial are the Mem-
bers of the Cabinet, and the PEEL majorities in Par-
liament. These comprise the worst class of offenders,
—the real originators of all the riots in the manufac-
turing districts.

We have received several additional letters re-
specting the violent conduct of the police, most of
which we are obliged, for the present, to postpone.
They all agree on the main points, and are una-
nimous as to the growing hostility of the community
to this military force. As a proof of this feeling
the charges for obstructing the police are rapidly (n
the increase, having been doubled in three years.
Public meetings and public subscriptions for prose-
cuting the offenders are proposed, and in a short
time we believe they will become so odious, and
consequently' so useless for preserving order that a
law must be passed to break up the establishment or
change the entire system. One Correspondent says,
on , witnessing an act of atrocity committed
by a constable, " I never was opposed to
the Government before." Thousands are actuated by
the same feeling, and should a serious 'crisis arise,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM will find this numerous and ex-
pensive body worse even than a broken reed. English-
men are not yet so destitute of spirit as to submit,
like Russian serfs or Egyptian fellabs, to blows for
speaking or crying out against oppression; and woe
to the Minister that attempts to reduce them to such
et slavish condition.

We perceive from the Edinburgh papers that the
Commission of the General Assembly are to meet on
Tuesday, for the purpose of addressing Her MAJESTY
and Prince ALBERT, on the occasion of the Royal
visit to the Northern Metropolis, and that the course
pursued by that body when GEORGE the Fouauf
visited Scotland •is cited as a precedent. The ' caseF
however, are diametrically opposite. The General
Assembly in 1822 was a loyal, peaceful, and legal
Ecclesiastical Court, merciful and forgiving towards
their weaker brethren, obedient to the law, and
anxious for the promotion of pure morality, and
true religion. The Assembly of 1842 is egre-
giously defective in all these Christian virtues.
Their unfeeling conduct towards their tinoffending
brethren, their numerous depositions of useful and
venerable clergymen, and the unseemly strife which
theY:,excited in every Kirk Session, Presbytery, and
Synod, are known to all, and we need not, therefore,
comment on them. But as regards' the QUEEN, there
is one part of their conduct which cannot be passed
over without some mark of disapproval, and
which will require the serious consideration
of her MAJESTY'S advisers. They have re-
sisted the law, they threaten still to resist it, and
while they remain impenitent and disobedient, we
cannot see how they can be admitted into the pre-
sence of the First Magistrate, the especial guardian
of the law. Any ceremony of the kind would be an
insult to her MAJESTY and an encouragement to evil
doers, and we therefore confidently trust, when they
wait on Sir JAMES GRAITAM, that he will bow them
civilly out, and decline under present circumstances
any address from a body so dangerous to the peace of
the community.

The dearth of important political news in the
French journals continues. Instead of proceeding to
Switzerland and Prussia, M. THEIRS left Paris on
Wednesday for Boulogne to examine the site of the
Camp of NAPOLEON. The ex-Minister is engaged
in writing his History of the Empire, which is to form
ten volumes of a continuation of his History of the
French Revolution. As M. THEIRS, when Minister
for Foreign Affairs, had ready access to a number of
important State papers never yet communicated to
the public, his new work will possess European in-
terest, provided that he only employ the most ordi-
nary industry, and honesty in the use of his materials.
The French journals are still occupied with M.
THIERS' speech and vote upon the Regency question.
It is clear that his friends do not know what to think
about him. lie has supplied them with no clue to
his proceedings. For our own part, we believe that
M. TRIERS has made his own terms with the KING.
At present he is not prepared to take office, as he
wants to finish his History, which is already pur-
chased, but that he will have accomplished at the
meeting of the Chambers in January. In the interim
many difficulties to his resumption of office will be
quietly removed. In the fortifications of Paris he
will find abundant grounds for abandoning his war-
like policy ; for what nation can be supposed fool-
hardy enough to provoke a hostile collision with an
empire, whose capital is kept in order by the constant
sight of the muzzles of 2,000 pieces of cannon ?

The Duke DE NEMOURS, who was so unpopular
during the lifetime of his brother the late Duke of
ORLEANS, is quite a favourite with the people of Stras-
burg, where his Royal Highness is at present.
Nothing so improves the temper, and so mollifies the
speech, as the being a candidate for regal honours.
The accounts from Strasburg concur in describing
the reception of his Royal Highness the Duke de
Nemours as most enthusiastic, and in stating that his
unassuming but dignified demeanour produced the most
favourable impression upon all classes. A supplement
of the Alsace of the 22d instant states that a telegraphic
despatch, announcing the passing of the Regency Bill
by the Chamber of Deputies, was communicated to his
Royal Highness whilst he was dining .with the autho-
rities. The young Prince," says the Alsace, "re-
ceived the news with modest dignity and affecting
simplicity. He said—' If my 'dearest wishes should
be accomplished, France will not have occasion
for a Regent. But if. God should one day
call upon me to assume that difficult post, I
will neglect nothing to show myself worthy of the con-
fidence of the country, and of the duties which are im-
posed upon me by the vote of the Chamber." A letter
from Strasburg of the 21st, in the Debats, gives the
following as the reply of the Prince to a General Officer,
who had spoken to him of the new position in which the
death of the Duke of Orleans has placed biro, 4. Aly

The conduct of the Government in appointing an
' Extraordinary Commission for the trial of the ope-
ratives apprehended during the late disturbances in
the manufacturing districts, appears to us fraught with
much danger. When it is borne in mind that
these poor men underwent the severest privations
before turning out, in the hope of obtaining
a " fair day's wages for a fair day's work "
that they excited universal surprise by
the extent to which they respected property—and
that they were hardly guilty of a single outrage not
provoked by the wanton intermeddling of the police,
it will be difficult to discover any rational ground for
setting aside the ordinary forms of law in bringing
them to trial. There was nothing whatever treason-
able—hardly anything seditious in the turn out of
the operatives. They proposed to themselves no
violation of the laws for the protection of private
property or social order. They sought nothing
which the. Constitution of the country, either in the ,
letter or the spirit, denies to all classes of British
subjeCts. Any attempt, therefore, to wrest the or-
dinary forms of law for the purpose of making
examples of them, will hereafter be followed by, con-
sequences little foreseen by her MAJESTY'S Ministers.
It is quite clear that the people resisted the military
and the police as little as they could help, consistently
with a regard to their own preservation. Had it been
otherwise we should not have to record, day after
day, the flight of tens of thousands of Englishmen
before a handful of police. Our countrymen are no
cowards, and were their object resistance to the au-
thorities, Sir JAMES GRAHAM would have a very dif-
ferent tale to tell from what he has now to impart to
the members of the Extraordinary Commission,
Our people have all heard of the Barricades
of, Paris, and . were they to propose such an
example_ to . ..thetnaelvesit, .they -Mould-e: not be,
(found less brave, or less skilled in the modes of
S•j;stematic defence and attack than their Gallic
neighbours. But it was with monopoly, not with
bludgeons and bayonets, that they 'sought to, come
into collision.