The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-26 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three &Cluck.

The proceedings of the secret tribunal, said to
be engaged in examining the Custom-house plun-
derers, remain as mysterious as ever. One Cor-
respondent says the Lords of the Treasury have
not confidence in the Board, and are resolved to
appoint a Commission to make an impartial in-
vestigation into all the details of this disgraceful
conspiracy. Another says there is no truth in
these statements, as the inquiry is still carried
on; not, however, by the Board of Customs,
with the Chairman at their head, but by only
one member, not the most fit either to do justice
to the case. Then there are long paragraphs in
the papers,' asserting that Mr. A. and Mr. F.,
with some twenty others, have been suspended or
discharged, which are followed by others, contra-
dicting these reports, and casting great blame on
the public journals for blasting the fair fame of so
many upright men. Insinuations are also made
against several silk-houses implying that they
have participated in the plunder, and in a few
days come forth assertions equally strong from
them or their friends, declaring all these a mere
tissue of falsehood, and denouncing the conduc-
tors of journals for publishing such libellous as-
persions. But neither the public press nor the
public are to blame. The loss to the revenue
may be one hundred thousand pounds or one
million sterling; and from the darkness which
covers the proceedings, and the natural disposi-
tion of man to magnify what is unknown,
a general feeling prevails that the loss may
amount to the latter sum, and something more;
those, therefore, who are saddled with new and
oppressive taxes to make up deficiencies in the
revenue, are anxious toknow how they have been
robbed, and eagerly catch at reports in news-
papers, said, of course, by the Correspondents,
to be founded on the best authority. While these
rumours prevail, and they will continue to prevail
until the mystery is cleared up, how conies it
that the silk traders themselves do not hold
public meetings, and demand a public investiga-
tion, in order to remove suspicions from the in-
nocent, and convict those that are really
guilty. While the Spitalfields weavers, who
suffer so much by smuggling, have held
meetings and called for an open in-
quiry, we are not aware that any step has been
taken in the same course by the very parties
who thus complain of calumny and falsehood.
They are not all implicated. Ten er twenty
righteous men certainly can be found among the
trade, who fear no disclosures either from Mr.
BURNBY, Mr. HOMERSHAM, or Mr. DOWDING ;
and as they regard their character, as well as the
public good, they are bound to denounce' the
secret system, and call for a real, and not a
mock, investigation. The Lords of the Trea-
sury after all, however, are the parties
most deserving of blame. Though it is
known to every one that no confidence is
placed in men who are themselves implicated by
gross neglect of duty, and great doubts exist
as to the credibility of the witnesses examined
in this secret inquisition, the sham trial has
been protracted for weeks; the Commissioners
rsobbeadbl
up,y b e
by the discharge of some
according to report, have all left it but one; awould nd
much delighted to see the
affair
twenty or thirty inferior officers; while the
really guilty parties, the men paid thousands a
year for doing nothing but mischief, are allowed
to escape. Why is the prosecution not carried
on in the `usual mode adopted in such ne-
farious transactions? A simple discharge or
suspension for a few years—perhaps, a few.
months—Lis not an adequate punishment for such
wholesale robbery. While half-starved men arc
sent to the treadmill for petty thefts, and poor
Chartists are banished for foolish and misguided
attempts to obtain what they consider their
rights, public officers, guilty of infinitely greater
crimes, escape with impunity. They are merely
told their services are no longer wanted, a sort
of intimation not very rare in private establish-
ments, and addressed to men of irreproachable
character. It is the duty of the Government,
therefore, to take the affair out of the hands of
the Commissioners, and institute an inquiry be-
fore a Judge or Police Magistrate, in open Court,
with solicitors paid to carry on the prosecution,
and unravel all the windings of the plot. Since
writing the above, we see from our City news that
the affair, as regards the Commissioners, is
brought to a conclusion ; but no confidence can
be placed in reports from any quarter.

Mr. O'CONNELL, after submitting in silente
for years to the abuse heaped on him in Parlia-
ment and out of Parliament, for accepting an
annual subscription from his countrymen, has at
length condescended to enter into a minute and
lengthened justification of his conduct. We say
condescended, for he stood on such high vantage
ground, and his motives were so well under-
stood by those whose good opinion he was
naturally most solicitous to retain, that
he had no need to justify himself, but
might with perfect propriety have main-
tained unbroken silence. We are no enthu-
siastic admirers of Mr. O'CONNELL. We have
not the slightest inclination to go the whole hog
in his favour. We think him mistaken in many
of his strong opinions; and on the question of
Repeal, in particular, are persuaded that he is
labouring under the grossest possible delusion;
but as regards his acceptance of the " rent," we
hold, with the majority ofhis grateful countrymen,
that not the slightest shadow of blame can be
attached to him. The man who has made the
vast personal sacrifices that he has made in the
cause of Ireland—who, at a period when his
" minutes counted by the guinea," never allowed
a day to pass without devoting some hours to
the great question ofEmancipation—who bore " for
four years" the entire expenses of its agitation—
aad who afterwards, when, thanks to his hercu-
lean energies, the shackles were struck from the
limbs of the Catholics, gave up " professional
emoluments exceeding 8,0001. per annum," in
order to have an opportunity ofstill further bene-
fiting his country—who at a later period refused
the offices of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer,:
and Master of the Rolls, either of which ap-
pointments would have given him that rank,
fortune, and consequence in the world's eye, so
tempting to an ambitious and aspiring spirit—
the man, we say, who made all these personal
sacrifices in the cause of his oppressed country,
and who made them ungrudgingly, un-
hesitatingly, has taken it out of the power
of even his bitterest enemies to charge
him justly with avarice or selfishness. The rent
is Ireland's willing testimony to Mr. O'CoN-
NELL's consistent patriotism. It is also a
voucher for his political influence, and -a proof,
defying contradiction, that his country is as
anxious as ever to avail herself of his services,
and looks to him chiefly as the instrument of her
regeneration. It will be time enough to taunt the
Hon. and Learned Gentleman with his acceptance
of a national subscription, when the Myriads of
lazy, selfish sinecurists, who fatten at the public
cost both here and in Ireland, have learned to
blush for their cupidity, and consented to resign
their pensions, in a sudden paroxysm of disin-
terestedness and patriotism. When this astound-
!. an sp, will be when the sky
we will then consent to
reconsider the question of the O'CONNELL Com-
pensation Fund.

We had-not at the usual hour of going to press
received the Paris papers of Monday, whiCh
have been delayed by the boisterous weather in
the Channel:

MARGATE.—So vast and unprecedented have been
the shoals of herrings this season upon our coast,
that the Jane, one of our fishing smacks, arrived at
thejetty, on Sunday morning, with a cargo of the
miraculous number of 50,000: the whole of
which the crew disposed of to Mr. Turner, a fish
curer, for 501., being at the rate of six a penny.