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

IX TERM.

SPIRIT OF TIM LONDON JOURNALS.

We regret to hear that there s great distress
in Spitalfields and its neighbourhood. We be-
lieve that the ingenious artisans there have acted
erroneously. They have driven a.,say a consider.
able part of their trade into the country, by in-
sisting upon contract wages, value the work could
be got more cheaply done at a distance from
Loudon, even with the additional expense of
carriage to anti fro. We wish the operatives
(a,; they are called in England, the French call
them industriels) were at last, in the march of
i ntelleet, arrived at that summit of knowledge
which should inform them that trade cannot be
t;:e ofy becameheni s
even
t
forced. However, the Spitalfleils weavers are
distressed ; and no matter how
they must he relieved. So distressed are they,
poor creatures, that to say nothing of food, we
learn from good authority, mm
take their turns in occup) ing iccessively, for
half nights, the few beds they poseeste It it said,
that out of 9,000 looms only ore-half are em-
ployed. We fear mechanism has something to
do with this ; but, no matter, practice must keep
pace with discovery, and humanite ought, to alle-
viate the sufferings which, in the . first instance,
spring from the adoption of nary mechanical in-
ventions. The Spitalfields Soil) Society re-
commence their distributions thin winter. We
hope, their fund will be sustained by contribu-
tions from beyond the precincts of the suffering
district, and that every effort will he made to re-
lieve distress so crying..--Times.-
In noticing the case of Wilqam Johnson,
tried at the Old Bailey on Monday, we took
care to express it as our opinion, that more
credit was due to the testimon7 of the officer
than the defence of the prisoner, who could
hardly have lived 56 years in tie world, and
more than 20 years in London (aid one of the
witnesses had known him 20 eears), without
knowing that coining was a capital crime, and
that rubbing half-crowns with the preparation
found in his apartment was coining. The very
exclamation, on which so muce reliance was
placed, "Oh God, Oh God lam trepan-
ned," proves that the prisoner was by no means
slow in making the discovery that a certain penal
consequence was likely to follow from the act in
which he was engaged—an idea that would not
so readily have flashed upon him had he been
reading his Bible or saving his prayers when the
two officers burst into his garret. The whole
question resolves itself, therefore, into the dee
gree of guilt ; for no man can believe that the
prisoner was entirely innocent. It is one thing
to be a regular coiner, discovered by the finesse
of an agent of the Mint, who worms him-
self into his confidence, and another thing to
be the victim of a plan of seduction, art-
fully laid by such an agent prowling about to
discover necessitous and credulous people whom,
he may tempt by the pictures he may hold out,
of an easy and safe wal of obtaining money. In
this Metropolis, there are thoesands of poor
wretches, who are only not guilty, because their
innocence has not been attempted ; and the se-
curity of these people depends rather on their
want of courage for the more daring crimes, anti
their want of dexterity for the climes of finesse,
so that 110 bona
,fide proficient in crime would
think of associating with them, than in the
power of resisting temptation, is 7 hotly pressed.
But these last are the very persons whom a man
who has an interest in multiply:lig convictions,
would in preference select ; fns it must always
be much more easy to trepan a simpleton, than
to discover a finished rogue. Macdaniel and
his gang generally contrived to tempt their vic-
tims to a participation in the ciimee of which
they were convicted. Our contt•uporary of the
Globe observes, that " where all are vicious, it
must he difficult for such persons as the Solici-
tors of the Miut to discover which are the lease
weak, and they must not be expected to reject the
only evidence which can perheps be obtained, be-
cause it does not come from the youngest member
of a partnership of colliers. It would also he bad
policy to discourage the idea that men who as-
sociate themselves with others, more criminal.
than themselves, are to be free from fear of be-
trayal by their elders in crime. The terrors of
the law ought to hang over the recruits as well
as the veterans." But as we hose observed, the
veterans, from a regard for their own safety,
will be cautious as to whom they admit into
their ranks; because a fool may endanger them
as much as a traitor. The people least likely to
be drawn into such crimes as coining are the
persons most easily trepanned. The conviction
of such men as Johnson will have little effect au
the real coiners, who will only laugh in their
sleeves at the business ; and e e question the
justice or policy of forcing crime by encourag-
ing attempts on necessitous sirrq•letons, by way
of adding to the terror of the lees. We are at
the same time aware of the difficulty in the
way of a Solicitor of the 'Mint discovering., tin-
der our present system, whether or not there
has been any entrapping. Where the agent goes
directly to work, as in the case of Johnson,
there may, indeed, be little difLeutty ; but the
agent may employ another to h:veigle, and the
solicitor may not know whether the knowledge
has not been obtained through tl.e splitting, as
it is called, of an associate. In the case of John-
son no precaution was taken by the agent ; and
this, we are sorry to say, is the v orst feature cf
the business, inasmuch as it presepposes some-
thing like the security derived fretn a confidence
that little inquiry would be made into the means
by which conviction might be obtained. The
Globe has made some observatio is on what fell
from us respecting the manner. of conducting
trials in this country. " The tree reason (says
our contemporary), we appreben.l, for not exa-
mining a prisoner is, the desire t.) save trouble.
In nine cases out of ten (we a-e inclined to-
lieve in a much greater number) there would be
no use in examining a prisoner. Where there is
not evidence enough to convict a prisoner, ex-
cept on his own admission, the search after his
guilt must necessarily be very tedious--the fox-
chase, which our contemporary speaks of, be-
comes so long that the horses are foundered.—
There is scarcely any alteratioi; which can be
proposed in the law of Englaed, which can
be carried into effect without inert asing the num-
ber of Courts, and the alteration our contempc-
rary aims at is, we think, tele of them.—
Another consequence which Must be foreseen in
the examination of prisoners is, that false infer-
ences would be frequently drawn from the desire
which many of them would have to conceal cir-
cumstances which have nothing to do with the
crime of which they are accused. A person
may be accused of shoplifting in the Strand,
who, at the time of the commission of the crime
was picking a pocket in Oxford-street. If it be
thought an evil that men are now convicted on
the score of their character, which the Chronicle
objects to, this evil would inevitably increase if
prisoners were subjected to a %ear,hiug cross-
examination ; especially unless tee other reform
was eacted which the Chronieis seems to con-