The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIM PUBLIC JOURNALS.

As we gave notice yesterday, Mr, 1-luskisson
had his audience of the King, The Right Hon.
Gentleman was admitted to his Majesty at one
ss'clock, and did not take his leave until eight in
the evening. If it be true that there has existed
a difference of opinion between the Sovereign
and some of his 'offis.'ial servants, it may be in-
ferred from the length of this audience, that
there was no decided or peremptory detc:-.i-inina-
tion announced by his Majesty t'o ilr. Huskis-
son, as one from which tee would not depart ;
because, had it been 80, the Right Hon. Gentle-
man, understariding the Constitution as every
enlightened statesman must be presumed to tons
strue it, would, we venture to affirm, have made
his bow at once and left the Royal presence, on
hearing that there was a " King's Candidate"
started for no other purpose than to prove the
responsibility of Ministers" a childish and con-
temptible delusion. The length of the inter.
view, we repeat, may be regarded as auguring
nothing unfavourable to the adjustment of a dif-
ficulty which could not have arisen except from
extraordinary error or misfortune in some quar-
ter not yet before the public. That a misun-
derstanding which requires adjustment has arisen
—whether that alluded to by the Tory journals
or not—seems probable from the fact of his
Majesty having thought it necessary to undergo
the fatigue of so protracted a discussion. Mr.
Huskisson is, we hear, to wait upon his Ma-
. testy again this day, at Windsor; and it is to be
hoped that the yet imperfect health of the Right
Hon. Gentleman may not suffer from such
reiterated exertion. The Lord Chancellor was
at yesterday's audience, but we have not heard
that the presence of Lord Goderich has been
thought necessary. Chief Baron Alexander is
appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland : he is
not, we believe, to be elevated to the Peerage.--
Times.
We have yet no information as to the result
of Mr. Huskissoses visit to his Majesty yester-
day at Windsor park. We are ourselves inclined
to believe that every thing will terminate satis-
factzirily. It would be greatly to be regretted if
the expectations the nation were led to form
from the union of men agreeing with regard to
those liberal principles on which alone the Go-
vernment ought to be conducted, and which have
hitherto led to such satisfactory results, were to
be now disappointed ; and we are- sure, there-
fore, that the distinguished individuals, whose
reputation is so intimately connected with the
permanent success of the measures whch they
have in common supported, will not on slight
grounds expose the interests of the country to
the hazard svhich would follow the dismember-
ment of the. Administration. Since writing the
above, we observe that it is stated that Mr. Hus-
kisson returned yesterday evening, shortly before
eight o'tiock, and afterwards had an interview
with Lord Goderich.—Morning Chronicle.
Of seventeen persons who received sentence
of death at the last Old Bailey Sessions one has
been executed ; the cases of the other sixteen
were not considered of such a nature as to pre-
clude the exercise of the royal mercy. Nothing
can prove more clearly that the punishment of
death is made too cheap in our Statute-Book.
It has a barbarous frequency at which civilization
revolts. The sanguinary theory is condemned
by the clemency of those who are appointed to
carry it into practice. When laws are so fierce
and vindictive as to be thus incapable of being
acted upon in the majority of instances they pro-
duce a great deal of mischief—they confound
offences of a minor description with the most
enormous crimes. The moral distinction be-
tween different degrees of depravity is not pre-
served, and the novice in crime is classed with
the veteran and incorrigible offender. It is no
excuse for this system, to say that the mercy of
the King and his Judges corrects the excessive
severity of the Legislature. It is the reproach
and disgrace of the system that it needs such
correction. We do not deny that under the best
code of laws that human wisdom could devise,
there will not, occasi'rnally, occur cases where it
is right that the Royal prerogative of mercy
should arrest the sentence of the law, but under
a judicious system of laws, such cases will be the
exceptions, and not, as with us, the general rule.
Such a savage thirst of human blood Bervades our
Statute-Book, that it would be dreadful indeed if
one-tenth, or even one-twentieth, of the persons
condemned to death should actually suffer; but
if the majority of capital convicts were to be ac-
tually executed, the heart that had any human
feeling would sicken at the waste of blood. Why,
then, is this mockery of sentencing crowds of
human beings to death, who cannot, and dare
not, be executed, persevered in ? It matters
little whether sentence is pronounced in form, as
in the city of London, or recorded, as upon Cir-
cuit, the practice in both cases makes the mind
too familiar with the adaptation of that ultimate
punishment to inferior offences, which ought, as
well in theory as in practice, to be only. appropriated
to the greatest crimes. Our Criminal Code re-
quires, in this respect, a thorough purgation—it
must substitute for inc:iscriminate vengeance a
just severity.—lllorning Herald.
The Catholic Questicn opens to the Whigs
two different roads out of office ; and at present
it is somewhat difficult to determine through
which of them they will eventually be expelled.
So far as the choice may rest with them, we en-
tertain little doubt however that they will prefer
that which is the more circuitous—that which is
apparently the longest of the two—that which
leads less visibly to the dreaded destination. If
the Whigs act upon this question, now that they
are
in possession of power, in conformity with
the
views and principles they loudly proclaimed
when in opposition, the whole influence of Ad-
ministration will be employed to obtain the con-
sent of Parliament to the
.admission of the
Roman Catholics to an equality of political
power with the Protestants of the empire. This
is the direct and visible road out of office which
lies before the Whigs. Let ' them indicate by
any means, however gentle--or by any symptoms.
however slight—that they mean to adopt this
course, and power will at once be snatched out
of their hands by a Monarch indignant, because
he will have been deceived, and amid the
generous and unbounded applauses of a people,
who will fully sympathize with the Monarch's
feelings, because they fully participate with him
in conscientious regard and ardent affection for
the British Constitution. There is, we feel how-
ever persuaded, an instinct belonging to the
Whigs which will teach them to avoid this path,
unless they
perceive that the only remaining
one whirl
lie before them leads though
more slowly to the same end, and is moreover
so rough and
uncomfortable, so beset with
thorns and bra
tables, and so infested with noxi-
ous reptiles of all sorts, that to pursue it would
be at once a misery and a dis-race
should clearly perceive this we are. That
most theye
Orous ; it is good for them, and unquestionably