The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-21 00:00:00

template—of getting rid of the trial by jury, in
order to secure the prisoner against the bias
which character produce% in the minds of la.,
persons. We believe, that tbough un.:1112 im-
portance has been given to the matter by the
followers of Mr. Bentham, to examine prisoners
would be on the whole an improvement. In
cases of clear and spotless innocence (where a
man is acc►►:ied of stealing a horse, who
has never even looked over ;,he hedge) to

be subjected to an examination is cer-
tainly' a protecion. It would also, in some
eases, increase the chances of convicting pri-
sonersju;tly, though we think also it would in-
crease the chances of convicting, for crimes of
which they were not guilty, men who might be
deserving of punishment for some other crimes.
The good is not altogether unmixed. But in
introducing this improvement', if it he thought
of, there is one thing which,- according to the
testimony of those who have observed its opera-
tion in the French Courts, should be guarded

apinst, the en'rusting the duty of cross-examin-
ing the prisoner to the Judge who has afterwards
to decide on his guilt, or to direct the Jury. In
the " fox-chase" of criminal justice, the Judge
then becomes the hunstncan, or earth-stopper :
he necessarily he-:omes passionate in the pur-
suit of his object, and angry wish a prisoner who
evades or baffles his inquiries. Meritorious as
Sir J. Allan Parke may be as a Judge, we should
be afraid to trust even him as a fudge, if the
task was delegated to him of cross-examining
and hunting out the guilt of a prisoner."—
The above observations would require a
more extended notice than our space will
at present allow us to bestow on them.—
We may, however, shortly state, that the pri-
mary consideration in criminal procedure ought
unquestionably to be,—in what manner can
guilt be most effectually discovered and inno-
cence most effectually protected ; for society has
the deepest interest in the discovery of guilt and
the protection of innocence. The extension or
non-extension of our existing tribunals is quite
an after consideration. The improvement of the
means of attaining the great end of Criminal
Law ought to be deemed paraluount to every
other circumstance. If it could be shown that
the criminal business of the country could be
gone through by a process which would require
only half the present Courts, but which would
be attended with the disadvantage of convicting
only a few more innocent men, and letting a few
more rogues escape, the economy would be uni-
versally scouted. Why, then, should we hesi-
tate to adopt any improvement that added to the
safety of innocence and the danger of guilt,
merely because it added to the Courts ? The
Courts are the means ; the end is the discovery
of guilt and security of innocence ; and to
neglect the latter for the former is to sacrifice
the end to the means. The certainty of punish-
ment, too, diminishes the incentive to crime,
while uncertainty has an inevitable tendency to
increase crime. If by•dispatch we only provoke
,an accumulation of business, the. gain will not
be great. But we entertain very different notions
with respect to the power of examinatims from
those ent:ertained by cur contemporary. He
admits that L. would he of the greatest advantage
to innocence ; and we may add, that at present
an acquittal leaves often an innocent man under
a stigma, for the public are at a loss to know
whether he is acquitted merely because proof
could not be obtained, or because he is
really innocent. But with respect to guilt, it is
not so easy to deceive a practised investigator
as might at first be supposed. A prisoner 14 re-
quired, for instance, to tell his own story with-
out any interference with him. This always fur-
nishes some indicit?. Advantage is taken of
the information to make inquiry in the sources
Opened up. By means of the new information
obtained, the prisoner is required to explain a
variety of particulars, and Ice soon finds, if he
has been fabricating a story, that he has entang-
led himself in a labyrinth of contradictions. The
process may be tedious, but we believe it is in
the end a sure one. Innocence is always seen in
a moment ; the disguises of guilt give more
trouble, but it is almost impossible that it should
succeed. The acts for which men are put on
trial uocier bad Governments, are often swch as
merit praise rather than punishment, and hence
the more improved tfie means of detection
the greater the violence to the feelings of the
good. The English mode of trial may thus be
productive of rood by its defectivenese. But
this is a separate consideration. We are sup-
posing that the laws are just, and that society
has an interest in their being carried rigorously
into execution.—Morning Chronicle.

The political agitation in Ireland, and the
confidence of the Popish faction that they will
eventually be successful in overthrowing the
Constitution, are kept alive principally by the
persuasion that the Legislature of the Empire
wiit in no circumstances overcome its reluctance
to interfere by positive enactments for the pro-
tection of the existing Institutions of the State ;
nor can it be denied that the past conduct of
the Legislature has contributed, in some degree,
to the propagation and maintenance of this dan-
gerous delusion. The emancipationists in Par-
liament, those of the Press, the speakers on
their side of the question at our Public Meet-
ings, and the demagogues of the Catholic Asso-
ciation, all assume, as things not to be disputed,
the impossibility of the question remaining, in its
present state, and the further impossibility of re-
tracing any of the steps by winch the political
power now enjoyed by the Roman Catholics
has been conceded to them. They go even
further thao this ; for they constantly =eine
the impossibility of Parliament legislating with
a view to prevent the mischiefs that are threaten-
ed, or to mitigate those that have already been
produced by a precipitate and indiscreet course
of concession. This bold and insolent tone of
the enemies of the Constitution has not, we
lament to say, been repressed as it ought by the
friends of the Constitution. 'The latter have
appeared to shrink from the avowal of a deter-
mination, which, if .they be really the friends of
the Constitution, they roust necessarily have
formed to retrograde rather than to advance fur-
titer in a course which circumstances have shown
to be erroneous, and to deprive the Catholics of
some part of that political power of which they
have made so mischieOus a use, rather than
increase it, if ever they should be driven to the
alternative of doing either. That this is the
fixed determination of an immense majority
of the British people we are as confident
as we are of our own existence; and the
time has unquestionably arrived when those
British Statesmen who sympathise_jvitlx the
feelings of the nation—who the true
and genuine representatives -oC,the nation—
to whom the natitn: loai with confidence
for the defence and-protection of the Constitu-
tion, should manfully and resolutely proclaim it,
When the last concession, including the elective
franchise, was made to the Roman Catboas.,