The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-13 00:00:00

persons, or more than one-firth of the annual num

justice in a syistem which admits of the committal to
prison every year of more innocent persons than con-
victed criminals.

Now that Sir R. PEEL has been beaten into a.due sense
if the resi.eet which he ought to pay to the constitu-
ional rights of the people in the sacred cause of petition-
ng ; and we earnestly trust that such an impression will
bo made by the influential members cf every constituency
upon their representatives, as to lead those who are
worthy of consideration into their proper course, and scare
the Tories, returned to serve a special purpose in this
Parliament, from ever agaia disregarding the inalienable
right of the people to petition when and how they
please. In the debate on the income tax, our readers
will observe Mr. WALLicn taunted Sir ROBERT PEEL
with an entire change of • opinion since he ad-
dressed the House in 1833; on the subject of
an income tax. The quotation from his speech,
clearly shows that the. Right Hon. Gentleman
himselfpointed out, so long ago as 1833, the odious nature
of this impost. The exemption of Ireland from the tax
is another point of high importance, and we entirely
concur in the remark which Mr. WALLACE made in
the late discussion, when he accused the Premier of
having cautiously and cunningly devised his measures
so as to place the various classes of society, as well
as the inhabitants of the different countries, in hos-
tile array against each other. The peOple of Scot-
land are esrecially indebted to Mr. 'WALLACE for
the stand he is to make on their behalf. But it is a
common cause and we are sure the representatives of
the three kingdoms will so see it, and cordially unite in re-
jecting this measure, and stopping it at its present stage,
or so mutilating it at a future time as to have a similar effect.
We would earn ,stly, also, entreat our Irish friends to
look well to the interests of their country. If they are
wise, they will believe what Sir ROBERT PEEL said in
1833, and utterly repudiate his apparent promise of
exempting Ireland from an income tax. He has already.
said, that his only reason for now exempting Ireland, is 1
the want of machinery for the application of the tax.
He knows well enough he has now got machinery, which
did not exist in 1833. The surveys which have been
made of Ireland, for the purposes of tithe commutation
and the working of the Poor-laW, have been accompa-
nied with valuations which will easily enable him to
apply the income tax. We hope the working
classes will see the deception which Sir ROBERT
PEEL has attempted to impose upon them. When
speaking against Lord ALTBORP's proposal, in
1833, he then saw clearly enough that a tax upcn
income and property would directly injure the labouring
classes. But now that the proposal comes from himself
lie tells them that he is their friend, forsooth, and tha

taking away the income of their employers will have no
effect upon them, in their unheard of distressed state in

1842. A word is enough to the wise. The working
classes will see through the fallacy as quickly as we have
done, and view the attempt in the same light.

There is no news in the Paris Journals received this
morning. Nothing is talked of in the Chambers but
the budget, and the fierce attacks of the Opposition are
but what in England we would call hustings' speeches.

CUSTOM DUTY.—An account of the gross and net
receipts of each Custom-house, for the years 1840 and
1841, has just been laid before Parliament. The fol-
lowing five places stand highest on the list :—London
(in 1841, gross receipts), 11,757,262/. ; Liverpool,
4,140,5931.; Glasgow (including Greenock and Port
Glasgow), 1,050,462/. ; Bristol, 1,027,160/. ; and Dublin,
977,718/. The receipts at all these ports, with the ex-
ception of Liverpool, hare increased considerably as
compared with those of the previous year. The falling
off at Liverpool amounts to 467,0004

JUSTICE OF THE LAW.—(From a Correspondent.)—
One law says that the property of a person dying in-
testate shall pay a larger legacy duty than if he or she
had made a will ; another law forbids a person below a
certain age from making a will. Thus the property of
a minor of a certain age is regularly plundered. It is
mulcted because the individual did not do a certain act
which the law forbids. Just law ! Wise law-makers !
LET TILE LANDHOLDERS IbIITATE IR R. PEEL.—
"Sir Robert is known to be a considerable landowner ;
and we have been informed by a gentleman residing in
Staffordshire that the Right Hon. Baronet, in order to
become the sufferer himself, rather than his Staffordshire
tenantry should maintain any loss or injury In the event
of his reduced scale of import duties proving temporarily
prejudicial to the interests of agriculture, has given in-
structions for their rents to be reduced twenty per cent."—
Ten Towns' Messenger.--[A very proper hint to the land-
lords. Sir Robert Peel's practice is superior to his
preaching. In the House of Commons he has told the
country gentlemen they have nothing to fear from re-
ducing the duty on meat, and allowing the importation
of oatt:e. In Staffordshire he tells them, reduce your
rents, my Lords and Gentlemen, 20 per cent.; in order to
meet the alterations which I propose. For our parts we
have no faith either in his words or what is reported of
his conduct, both are intended to serve a purpose, and
keep alive that system of deceit which in him, from
custom, has become a second nature.—ED. Sun.]
INCOME TAX—LANDLORDS OCCUPYING THEIR OWN
LANDB.—A Correspondent asks how they ate to be
rated to the income tax? We answer that we do not
know. We suppose that in certain cases, such as the
great parks that surround the mansions of the nobility,
and such as Lord Althorp oe mpying, perhaps, 700 or
1,000 acres, the rent of such land will be calculated by

of their sympathies to " horned cattle ?" Have " Co-
lonial Asses" no claim on their kindly consideration ? We
should have imagined that the long-eared fraternity,
even though of foreign growth, would have been the
primary objects of their solicitude ; for—putting fellow-
feeling out of the question—there can be no doubt that
if asses cbuld ,be imported from our Colonies,
duty free, or nest to it, the agriculturists would
gain a vast accession of numerical strength. Con-
' ceive, too, with what added emphasis a BUCKINGHAM
would plead the cause of his party, when backed by the
support of a herd of kindred thistle-eaters from the
Cape ! By the timely assistance of these Colonial allies,
he might possibly succeed in terrifying Sir ROBERT
PEEL into a capitulation on his own terms ; for if the
bray of a single ass once put a lion to flight, it is evident
that the bray ofthousands must have& thousand-fold effect
on a Tory Premier, who is anything but a lion in his
nature !

Pursuant to Act 56 Geo. 111., ehap. 120, a return has
been made to the House of Commons of the number of
parsons committed to the different gaols throughout
Ireland for trial in the year 1841. No data can be sup-
plied for forming correct opinions as to efficacious opera-
tion of the laws in any country equal in value to such
returns, when drawn up in the lucid manner of the one
now before us. We have first a return of the gross
trunber committed ; next of the number against
whom indictments were fund ; next of the
number found guilty and the number acquitted by a
Jury ; and last of the number not prosecuted, and also
how many remain for trial. Now it may be taken as an
axiom, that the social condition of every country is
advanced, and the administration of Justice rendered
more perfect, in proportion as the number of
convictions for crimes approaches nearer to the num-
ber of persons acccused and committed to prison for
the supposed guilt of such offences. Where many are
imprisoned, and only few found guilty, one of two great
evils must exist—namely, either the law cannot reach
all the guilty, or innocence is no protection against im-
puted crime and false imprisonment. Now one or other
of these evils is frightfully prevalent in Ireland. This
is demonstrable from the return before us. Let us begin.
with the ultra-Protestant and loyal North, of whose Jury
system Mr. O'CoNitxti. recently made such an exposure
'in the House of Commons. Within the last year there
were 599 individuals committed for various crimes to
the county gaol of Antrim, of whom 62 were acquitted
by the verdict of a Jury, against 41 no bill was found,
and 16 were not prosecuted. Here we have 119

ber of committals, legally innocent of any crime, and
therefore unjustly imprisoned. Of 47 committals to
the ga'l of Carrickfergus only 25 were convicted by the
Jury, 20 being declared innocent. Out of 450 indivi-
duals committed to the gaol of Armagh only 224, or less
than one half, were found guilty. The committals to
the gaol of Li!Todd, in the county of Donegal, were 245,
of. which only 81 were convicted, all the rest being
legally innocent ! There were committed to the gaol of
Downpatrick, in. the county 'of Down, 540 individuals,
of whom 287 only were convkted. In the South things
are still worse. The number of committals to the cottn:y
gaol of Galway for the last year was 1,040 ; of this
number 178 were acquitted by the verdict of a-jury,
bills were found against 425, and 268 were not prose-
cuted, and consequently, after a considerable period of
confinement, were -discharged without trial! Even in
the Liberator's county of Kerry we find that out of 110
committals, only 38 were found guilty by a Jury. Nor
is the Capital an exception to the rest of the country-
The principal gaols of the city of Dublin are Newgate
and Kilmainham. To the former the number of com-
mittals was 380, convictions 191 ; to the latter, com-
mittals 113, convictions 56—being less than one half,
We do not 'notice this return with any view to put
abroad an impression that crime is increasing in Ireland.
On the contrary, we are gratified to find that offences of
an atrocious character, and which indicate a barbarous
state of society, are decreasing as rapidly as education
is spreading throughout that country. Still we have
quoted sufficiently from it to show that the administra-
tion of justice is very imperfect, and that, from whatever
cause arising, the e‘ it does not the less loudly call for the
exercise of a wise and impartial vigilance on the part of
the Government. Centuries ago Sir JOHN DAvis wrote
that no people loved justice better than the Irish, and as
the Lord Mayor of Dublin asserts that they are un-
changed in that respect, they cannot but recognise in-