The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PlitiLlC JOURNAL 3.

We gave two days ago the report of an ap-
peal from a bench of local Magistrates to the
county sessions of Cambridge, on behalf of an
individual who had been refused a licence to
keep a public-house, when the conduct of the
appellant was proved to be such as justified their
Worships in rejecting his claim to a licence.
With greater satisfaction we now present a case
in which an appeal was broughtbefore the county
sessions of Devonshire, when the decision of
district Magistrates was reversed, and a second.
hotel established in the growing town .of Tor-
quay, to the overthrow of a monopoly which had
hitherto been enjoyed by a person named Poul-
ton, tenant to Sir Lawrence Palk, a Baronet of
large fortune in that country. It appears that a
confectioner, by name Merchetti, applied at the
petty sessions for a licence, under which he
might be enabled to open a second hotel at Toe-
quay, and was refused by a bench of Justices,
among whom; Sir L. Palk waa not formally act-
ing, he was undoubtedly in the room at the
time, and witness to all the proceedings. It ap-
pears further, that Torquay had nil:kit.), increased
within a few years, and at the period of
' Merchetti's application (and now) was more
populous, and more productive of taxes, than
Teigninouth, where several hotels have been
opened : that Merchetti is a person ad-
mitted to be of unexceptionable character, and
that the sole reason (or rather motive) assigned
for disappointing him of his licence,was its being
agreeable to the Magistrates resident near the
spot that the licence should not be granted.
Mr. Kitson, a Justice, is reported to have said,
that " by courtesy the opinion of the neighbour-
ing Magistrates was relied on," and this com-
plaisance towards each other's personal preju-
dices or interests Nvas actually bandied about
among their worships as a sound exercise of thy
" discretion" vested in them by Act of Parlia-
went. But with this word " discretion" there
seems to have been connected a curious medley
of notions and sentiments in the minds of the
worshipful Magistrates, and of their professional
advocate, who ought to have known better. The
question, quoth Mr. Crowder, the magisterial
counsel—the question is, whether any undue
influence had been proved (!) on the part Of
Sir Lawrence Palk ? Indeed, the Worthy 13a-
ronet must have had a skull more adorned by
the bump of
o it
iunduei f his worshipful
influencee
ol°;(si l(leis
those)as etaln
towithi
place
p:s
lasithanagainst
e thl eveniee
whomnp the ave-
ragefg et
dol,fll-
as
11 exerted. A
u.OO whisperfoledv at:o;lec
evidence.
sbwr\oe%rtrlildeart
eJIn.
ouorsnyt
nonsense,
erz.:
" proofs!" Why, the Aucts
tphhoi s'
ntel abt
oof
but that
were proveable, were notorious, and ample. Sir
Lawrence Palk's tenant was enabled to pay a
higher rent for his hotel, by having a »monopoly
of the whole fashionable prodigality of Torquay.
Another person prays for a slice of the business,
and the more distant Magistrates answer, " Oh,
impossible ! for by courtesy (mark, not by law),
the neighbouring Magistrate determines for those
more remote from the scene under controversy."
And who is in this case the neighbouring Magi-
strate ? Why, Sir Lawrence, to be sure, whose
property, if not his person, is at Torquay. If this
does not speak for itself to any man of plain un-
derstanding, the deuce is in the Act of Parlia-
ment, that is all we can say to the busi-
ness. Yet Mr. Crowder, good man, in the sim-
plicity of' his heart exclaims, prove undue influ-
ence, or there is an end of your appeal ! And
adds this very alarming question—Whether the
Magistrates are to have " any discretion ?" We
object to every part of the-view taken by the
Learned Advocate, both to that affirmed in his
proposition, and to that which his interrogatory
supposes. There is, or ought to be, no end to
an appeal, merely because corrupt influence can-
not be demonstrated. The object of the Act of
Parliament was not confined to care for the de-
licacy or official reputation of country gentlemen.
The chief solicitude of the law,—so at least we
may assume,—is for the public. If a petty
bench of Magistrates has acted stupidly or ca-
priciously, or even with good intentions has
worked inconvenience to the community, and
loss to a deserving individual, the County Ses-
sions ought not to make an end of an appeal,
except by repairing the consequences of the ca-
price, or stupidity, by removing the inconve-
nience and redressing the wrong. A discre-
tionary power must not be abused through folly
or incompetency, more than through positive
corruption ; and a county bench of Justices
ought to despise the shallowness of him who de-
precates their casting a reproach on the judg-
ment or sound discretion of particular Maps-
crates, which effect would be of less than no im-
portance compared with that of leaving either
the public or the appellant to bear an inconve-
nience, for the redress of which time law has in-
stituted time valuable right of appeal. Iu this
instance we are happy to find, that without eon-
descending to notice the trashy talk of counsel
about corrupt influence, and so forth, the County
Sessions of Devonshire reversed the monopoly
decision, and established the appellant's case by
granting him his licence.—limes.

The account of the proceedings yesterday at
the London Sessions forms an admirable com-
mentary on the objections which have been lately
urged by some of our contemporaries to the en-
croachments on the liberty of the subject by the
New Police. lii truth, we are altogether a
strange people. We allow ourselves to be de-
prived of a hundred innocent enjoyments, for nu
conceivable reason ; and while we are as patient
as asses under real encroachments on liberty,
we task our wits to discover in measures neces-
sary 'to the security of person and property, and
therefore calculated to add materially to our hap-
ness and comfort, a possibility at some future
period, and under certain circumstances, of being
made use of in opposition to our liberties. We
turn from immediate and pressing evils to evils
of speculation. In applying for a music license
for the Queen's Arms Tavern, Cheapside, Mr.
Adolphus stated, that under the existing law, if
at the London Tavern the Duke of York's band
play " God save the King" without a music
license, a penalty is inevitable ; and he instanced
the case of Mr. Munns, against whom two ac-
tions had been brought because his daughter
played the pianoforte in his house. Mr. Adol-
phus aodod4e
bd
y, ainfot
ramiantai
ns hadof
tmadethis
kbi
nedt
conse-
quuence of the unfortunate communication
which he had happened to make in that Court
respecting the state of the law on the subject.
exceedinglyei
Mr.
dstoo
as
shi
to disclose
t Adolphus
osn(clithis
ili
characteristic.
re;
a‘opic ,
ocsitfeetelwrae of English
iocisipteliicecdir:aetini legi
have sltally, ation
is •
the sub-
ject so un-
-and—unaatned
• thus to
he the means of drawing into effect a most inju-
ious and unnecessary piece of legislation—was;
enacted on account of the robberies committed in
Henry Fielding's time, in the reign of George the

Second. That author had represented the dan-
ger, arising from the practice of fiddling in low
public-houses, which were thus curbed by the
proper authorities." Thus, because music pos-
sessed au attraction for the people, and assem-
Wages were favourable to robberies, music was
put down. An innocent source of enjoyment
to the people was closed by a bungling Legisla-
ture, because it knew how to check the effusions
of gaiety, but did not know how to check rob-
bery. The influence of music can hardly fail to
he beneficial in the ease of the lower orders, as
it must serve to withdraw them from gross sen-
snalitY. Mr. _Adolphus added, " When I was
vonng, men used to meet at taverns and public-
tsobses to sing noisy songs, and Wink. The
introduction of music, skilfully performed, gave
a check to this boisterous mirth. People now
:assemble to hear scientific efforts of the voice,
with accompaniments, and all tap-room roaring is
quite out of fashion." Mr. Loudon states that he
found even in the lowest country public-houses in
Germany a pianoforte, that the people might in-
dulge themselves in music and dancing. The re-
matk of the Recorder is admirable I, for one,
cannot consent to the giving of these new music
licsatses. I do not think that they can be of any
public benefit." In this country, it seems, a
man is not entitled to liberty of action in cases
-Akre that liberty is not injurious to others, but
lie is to be deprived of his liberty because a
Magistrate cannot see what benefit would be
derived from it. Precious idea of liberty !
One Justice of the Peace has not made up his
mind as to the tendency of this Act ; a second
has not made up his mind as to the tendency of
Another Act ; and it is quite enough that those
sages cannot discover that the Acts would be
productive of any evil to interdict. them. Eng-
lish liberty means the liberty of monopoly—the
liberty to interfere with the occupations and
amusements of the people—the liberty to poison
them— the liberty to pillage them—the liberty to
subject them to laws, which even Magistrates
Are taught to know by the persecution commenced
under them by common informers. Mr. Alder-
Man Heygate was startled when Mr. Adolphus
mentioned the London Tavern—" Do you say,
that if music was played at the London Tavern,
without a Music License, the owner would be
liable to a penalty ? If that be the case, the law
ought to be altered as soon as possible." A
little before he had said, " there was a difficulty
in drawing a line between the houses which
ought, and those which ought not to be li-
cenced ;" but when it was brought home through
the London Tavern to Aldermen and the like,
the difficulty vanished !—Morning Chronicle.
The trial of the prisoners under the Special
COMMiSSiOII at Cork, for conspiring to murder
George Bond Low, Esq., Admiral Evans, and
Arthur Creagh, Esq., three Magistrates of the
county, is of great importance, as tending to bring
to light one of the most extensive and dangerous
confederacies of sanguinary violence that has
disgraced the South of Ireland in modern times.
We can recollect time taunting and contemptuous
manner in which this diabolical conspiracy was
alluded to, up to the very eve of trial, by the
Popish Press of Dublin, whose ridicule was re-
echoed by the " liberal" papers on this side of
the water. The existence of the conspiracy is
DOW placed beyond a doubt. It is written in the
records of criminal justice, and seldom are its
pages stained with the recital of acts of more
hardened guilt or darker depravity. Where such
a conspiracy, at a period of no peculiar excite-
ment, could strike root and extend itself as this
has done, serious and alarming indeed must be
the demoralization of the people. Here we have
a number of persons, not driven to the commis-
sion of crime by want, not stung to desperate
deeds by poverty, or made reckless by despair,
but men in comfortable circumstances, binding
themselves by the most sacred obligations of re-
ligion to take away the lives of Magistrates whose
crime was the not submitting to the authority of
the secret tribunals of popular terror. It is too
well known that, in the West and South of Ire-
land, where Protestantism is comparatively li-
mited and weak, great numbers of the peasantry
have enacted a law against the law of the land, to
which landlords must submit or be put under the
ban of what is called time Rockite system. Many
of them have not the courage to resist this rural
tyranny, and, by yielding obedience to the de-
crees of the " terrorists," increase the insolence
of the Agrarian banditti. This makes the situa-
tion of men of uncompromising spirit doubly
hazardous. One of these men is r. Bond Low,
who has accordingly had to pass through the
fiery ordeal" of more direct attempts at assas-
sination than any individual, perhaps, now alive.
His determined courage has preserved him in the
midst of the most appalling perils. Not long since
he seized one of the armed ruffians that fired at
him, and brought him to justice. He subsequently
maintained a conflict alone against two assas-
sins, well armed—one of whom escaped wounded,
and the other he shot dead. If' Magistrates in
general, in the disturbed parts of Ireland, acted
with the intrepidity of Mr. Low, the Rockites
would soon get tired of their hedge-firing heroism.
This gentleman and his two brother Magistrates
who had made themselves obnoxious to the
" finest peasantry in the world" by similar firm-
ness of conduct, were to be taken off at all
hazards. If the Irish Government had been re-
mise in this instance, or—acting on the timid
principle of expediency—had neglected to vin-
dicate the laws, the consequence would in course
of time have been dreadful. A consciousness
of impunity would have increased the numbers
of the banditti, who were organised in a commu-
nion of blood. Very properly, therefore, did the
Solicitor-General say, in stating the.case for the
prosecution, that " Government claimed the
merit of having discharged its duty in bringing
on these trials. If the prisoners were not guilty
of the crimes imputed to them, it was but right
that they should be restored to their liberty
and their character. If they were guilty—
if the association of which they were said
to form a part existed—their punishment
cannot be too immediate; those associated
could not be too soon grappled with. Such an
rs;ociation, if not put down fearlessly by the law
and the legitimate tribunals of time land, would
put them down." He then went on to state
what he understood would be shown in evi-
dence, " that there existed in the country a secret
association—bound by oaths—organized—hav-
ing captains and committees—exercising an
awful controul over too many of our unfortunate
people, at whose bidding burglary, robbery, and
murder, were perpetrated—who had but to issue
their orders to be obeyed." This is an alarm-
ing state of' things; but it is only to be met by
courage in the Magistrates, and the fearless and
impartial enforcement of the laws by Govern-
meta. We hare no doubt that the result of the

present trials will strike awe into the guilty as
complices, and make such atrocious confede-
racies less popular.—Morning Herald.
A pamphlet has just been put into our hands,
entitled, " Important Information to the Agri-
culturist, Mechanic, and Labourer, who in-
tends to emigrate to the New Settlement on the
Swan River ;" which, as the subject is now
rife, it may be considered that we are bound to
notice. The patnplet is said, on the title page,
to proceed from the pen of Mr. John Burton
Gooch, though whether Mr. Gooch be a rear or
imaginary personage, we have not, at present,
the means of knowing. On perusing it, how-
ever, we find that the author possesses no know-
ledge on the subject on which he addresses the
public, beyond that which is possessed by every
one who has visited colonial establishments : and
that the important information given in the
pamphlet, refers entirely either to hints to
passengers in vessels bound to the New Set-

Clement, or to the author's observations on the
policy of emigrating to New South Wales.
On points of this nature the pamphlet
may be useful--in any othe,- respect it contains
nothing which might not be learned from almost
any other source. We take this opportunity,
however, to observe respecting migration, either
to the Swan River or to any other new settle-
ment, that no one ought to adopt such a step
who is not satisfied, in the first place, that he
cannot work out a satisfactory livelihood at home
—and, in the second, who is not prepared to en-
counter all manner of hardships and disadvan-
tages during the first years of his settlement.
To those, as the writer of the pamphlet very
Justly observes, who possess youth, some portion
of capital, a knowledge of agriculture, and the
requisite qualifications of industry and perse-
verance, there can be no question that emigration,
either to the Swan River, or to any other new
settlement, would prove " a mine of wealth ;" but
let us add, that, on the other hand, there is no
hope for those who do not possess those re-
quisites. There are, as yet, no houses at the
Swan River—no markets where provisions can be
purchased—no society—no newspapers—no li-
terature—no theatres—no any thing, in fact (to
use a homely expression), in the shape of Eng-
lish comfort ; and those in consequence who go
there in expectation of finding the latter, will be
egregiously disappointed ; but there is a good
climate, and good soil, and abundance of the
means of comfort to those who may choose to
labour-in order to procure them, and those as-
suredly, who are content to put up with such an
uncomfortable beginning as they must experience
at first, and to place their hopes of reward on a
life of toil, will have no cause to regret their
choice. The first emigrant, provided he be in-
dustrious and persevering, is always certain to
be wealthy in the end ; but when countries have
been fairly located (to use an American phrase),
there is but little difference beyond the certainty
of subsistence, between the mother country and
the new settlement.— Morning. Advertiser.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

IJATTON-GARDEN.

John Reilly, keeper of the Cock public-house, in
Buckeridge-street, St. Giles's, yesterday appeared
upon a summons before the sitting Magistrates, Mr.
ROGERS and Mr. LAING, to answer a complaint pre-
ferred against him at the instance of the Magistrates
themselves, by some of the new police, for keeping
a disorderly house.
The Magistrates, after warning him to be parti-
cularly cautious in future, ordered him to pay tilt--
costs of the summons, &c., and dismissed the com-
plaint.