The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-21 00:00:00

*tronb/Vattion

BUN OFFICE Three o'Cloch.

Though the Prime Minister has not yet ac-
quired much fame as a doctor, he surpasses all
others of the present day as a conjuror. The
miracles of Prince HOIIENLOE, and the conver-
sions made by Father MATREW, all sink into the
shade when compared with those of Sir ROBERT
PEEL. But twelve months ago, landlords, farm-
ers, and clodhoppers shouted, with one voice,
" Protection to agriculture," " Support the
Farmers' Friend," "No surrender." These
sounds have died away, or if any wreck is left
behind, it is heard only in the domains of BUCK-
INGHAM, who stands alone in his glory, and mo-
nopolises the title of Farmers' Friend. Now the
cry is changed, and at all the agricultural
meetings frum John O'Groat's to the Land's
End, the same parties as lustily exclaim " No
protection," " Improve your land," " Help
yourselves," and " Trust neither to PEEL nor
Parliament." Any man who last year had fore-
told such a change would have been regarded as
an idle dreamer, a visionary anti-monopolist, or
a fit subject for Bedlam. PEEL has done it all ;
for though the seasons and the enormous fail-
ures in the corn-trade have conspired to aid the
cause, he still has the sole merit of originating
this great system of conversion. But it is only
in progress, and if we are to believe his Tory sup.
porters, next session will produce still greater won-
ders. The Minister, with praiseworthy caution,
keeps his secret well, to the great annoyance of his
friends, but a feather shows how the wind blows.
Lord CLIVE, a candidate for the ultra-Tory
county of Salop, saw more changes coming; and
Mr. ACLAND, the Member for another county of
the same stamp, is aware that things cannot re-
main as they are. In a speech, quoted by Earl
FonTEscun, at the Devon agricultural meeting,
he said," They must not rely too much upon the
Legislature for what was called protection against
foreign competition; for the time was conic
when the best security for all interests was in
increased intelligence and perseverance ; so
that they might produce the best articles
at the lowest rates," and added, " whatever
changes have taken place, or might take place,
they would, looking to the balance of interests
work for the good of all." Earl FORTESCUE,
also, who is no mean authority in political mat-
ters, bears similar testimony, and calls upon
the landlords and farmers of Devonshire, as wise
and prudent men, to hold themselves ready
for further regulations for the admission of
foreign corn. " I ask," said his Lordship,
"those who are in the habit of watching the poli-
tical horizon, whether they are not themselves
prepared for further changes ?" These are all
good omens; and with the spirit now abroad in
the country, and the calm reason displayed by
tens of thousands, who, only six months ago,
saw no hopes of safety but in monopoly, the
predictions must be fulfilled. The enemies of free
trade arc in complete rout; their general led them
into dangerous ground, and they must rally
under a new banner. But the landlords are
not the only parties on whom the great conjuror
is to operate. The people want cheap sugar as
well as cheap bread. Hone monopoly is put down,
all the rest must follow. The West India planters,
aware of this, are putting their house in order ;
they will in good time follow the example of the
agriculturists, and call upon one another to trust
to themselves, and not to selfish and ruinous re-
strictions. For these changes, so full of promise,
and so necessary to the welfare of all classes, Sir
ROBERT PEEL deserves the praise and the
thanks of the country.

We have long entertained a notion that Ma-
gistrates in general, and Police Magistrates in
particular, are by no means prodigies of wisdom,
and seldom does a week pass without some cir-
cumstance or other occurring, as if fur the ex-
press purpose of corroborating our theory. For
instance, a day or two since three young men,
named FLACK, GREAVES, and PacscoTT, were
honoured with a special introduction to Mr.
GREENWOOD, the Magistrate, by a consi-
derate and attentive policeman, who charged
them " with loitering about the streets,
with the intention to commit a felony."
When evidence was gone into against them,
it was proved that they " looked in at a watch-
maker's window, then walked on, and then
walked back again." This fact, it will be at once
admitted, was suspicious; but how much more
suspicious—how much blacker in its dye, is the
following !—"Policeman watched them very nar-
rowly, and when they noticed him, they went
into the King's Arms public-house. In a few
minutes afterwards he saw them going towards
Clerkenwell." Going towards Clerkenwell !
Can there be more conclusive evidence than
this ? " What could they," as our Con-
temporary, the Times, justly asks, " what
could they want at Clerkenwell ?" Un-
happy Clerkenwell, whose locality is so
tainted, that even to " go towards" you, is proof'
positive that the individual thus " going," is no
better than he should be ! It was our lot, some few
months since, to see no less distinguished a per-
sonage than the Right Hon. HENRY GOULBURN,
Chancellor of her MAJESTY'S Exchequer, " go-
ing" towards Clerkenwell, and we will now
frankly confess that we bitterly regret not hav-
ing given him into the custody of a policeman,
for it is manifest that he could have been " go-
ing" into that contraband locality for no good;
and a discreet Magistrate would at once have com-
mitted him for the act. But though " going to
Clerkenwell" stamps a man as a rogue and
a vagabond, yet it is still More to his dis-
credit when he is proved to have " looked
in at a watchmaker's window!" Hear the
sapient GREENWOOD on this point :—" There
is no doubt that you were all three out fbr the
purpose of committing a felony. For what other
purpose could you be looking in at watchmakers'
windows?" Well may the Magistrate have put
this acute interrogatory ! The prisoners could
have peeped into the watchmaker's window for
ly good. There was burglary in the very
act of gazing. When a magpie peeps
into a marrow-bone, every man with two ideas
in his head knows right well that the bird is not
eye to the dainty, unctuous matter that may
lmmeprpeelyn gtorabtiefylg his curiosity, but has a shrewd
within that bone ; so when a man
peeps into a watchmaker's window, it is equally
gratify no mere optical pre-
dilections, laencitfieosnt s that itt
oi s to
give
free scope to the develop-
ment of his burglarious capabilities. He peeps
with a view to prig. So argues the logical
GREENWOOD, and far be it from us to in-
sinuate that magisterial logic is not the
perfection of reasoning. We conclude with a
word of advice to all
London peripatetics, which
"going we append by way of moral to our remarks—
Never be seen towards Clerkenwell," or
looking in at " watchmakers' windows!" If,
however, like the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
necessity forces you in that discreditable direc-
tion, hide your blushes in a cab; and if your
curiosity cannot be controlled, and yon must
needs "look in at a watchmaker's window," take
care that Policeman 344 N. is not standing "in
plain clothes" close behind you!

Madrid journals of the 12th hare been rc.
ceived, and are chiefly occupied with the state
and the conduct of the
REGENT; the one party describing it as heartless
of affairs in Catalonia,
and cruel, and the
other justifying it as the only
maans of putting down the rebellion.
The house of BARING and Co. are said to have
advanced to the Alinister of Finance the sum of
forty millions of reals on the security of quick-
silver, and that agents from some other English
capitalists were expected at Madrid to make ar-
rangements fo i the other part of the loan of 600
millions o irea. The tranquillity of the capital
has not been disturbed.

The Three per Cents. were done on the Madrid