The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

It appears to be generally expected that the
Seeretary for the Home Department will, early
in the approaching Session, introduce some
changes into the system of Police now established
in the Metropolis and its neighbourhood, by
which offences may be, more easily detected or
punished, and the sum total of crime be in an
equal. ratio reduced. Undoubtedly there must
be something wrong in-the frame or working of
an institution,- which on one side tends more to
deprave and harden youthful criminals than to
reform them, and on the-other inclines those who
suffer injury in purse or person to let the offender
escape unpunished, rather than harass themselves
by the unrecompensed trouble and expense which
the present law inposes on all private prosecutors,
or subject the wrongsdoer to a penalty more
severe than his crime is held by the majority of
human individuals to merit. The various hard-
ships and mischiefs attending the present mode
of prosecution of offences, are well enumerated in
a little pamphlet which has been recently submitted
to us. The object, as described by the author, a
practising solicitor, is to show the great " un-
certainty of prosecution, and from what causes
it arises, and to suggest some alterations in our
criminal proceedings which are calculated to re-
medy the defect." On the first of these sub-
jects he presents a frightful picture of the Bela} s.
risks, disappointments, pecuniary charges, and
manifold annoyances, which beset an unhappy
prosecutor, from the first complaint which he
makes before a magistrate to his final appeal to a
jury. Then, if the offence be one which it
mainly concerns the public interest to repress by
making an example of the perpetrator, the re-
cognizance required for following .up the Charge,
lodged by the sufferer in thj first moment of in-
dignation, by a regular prosecution, after his
feelings may have cooled, is quite inadequate as
a security for his performing that part of his
duty, as being only 40/. From the repugnance
of parties to proceed to trial follows the impu-
nity of, young offenders, and their consequent
and rapid improvement in crime : so that many
capital convicts of late have been found not to
exceed an average of from 15 to 25 years
of age. Other offences, again, are so indescriba-
bly horrid and disgusting, that even those who
may with innocence on their parts have had the
means of convicting the criminals, are afraid to
come forward either as prosecutors or witnesses,
for fear of being, however wrongfully, suspected
of impure associations. So female modesty
often (this, we believe, is unquestionable)
shrinks from bringing home punishment to the
most atrocious outrage which can be committed
against a defenceless woman, because of the
cruel examination and publicity to which on a
trial the unfortunate sufferer is exposed. The
compounding of felonies is an encouragement
to the practice of robbing, which can never be
got rid of until the police shall have been invi-
gorated and reformed, or until all sense of pri-
vate interest becomes feeble in comparison with
that virtuous but somewhat unnatural zeal for
public justice which we have heard certain poli-
tical censors require from men smarting under
losses equivalent to the total ruin of their fami-
lies. Then, again, " conviction" is repre-
sented by the author to be as precarious
as " prosecution" itself, and arises chiefly
(tom two causes—the occasional dishonesty
of the attorney for the prosecutor, and the in
variably enormous expense. These several cir •
cumstances, combined or separately, have con-
tributed so powerfully to discourage prosecutions,
that during five years, from 1819, not less than
1,092 bills were thrown out by grand juries,and
137 prisoners discharged for'want of prosecution,
in London alone ; while in Middlesex, for five
years and a half, the numbers were 5,143. The
remedies suggested are rather too voluminous for
insertion. The author recommends, in brief, to
exempt individuals in the higher description of
offences from "the annoyance, expense, and re
sponsibility of criminal prosecution ;" and as
a step towards this object, lie would vest in dis-
trict magistrates the duties of inquiry into of-
fences, and those of trial and adjudication, ex-
cept in cases of petty transgressions. But the
inquisitorial magistrate, in cases of felony, should
be preliminary only to an officer unknown in
this country, though long established in the jus
risprudence of Scotland,—viz. a " public pro-
secutor." This suggestion is by no means new.
—Times.

It is observed by Hume, " that the national
spirit which prevails among the English, and
which forms their great happiness," makes them
exceedingly partial to their own merits. If this
be the cause of great happiness, we may from
many indications congratulate ourselves that it is
as unimpaired as ever. A better instance can-
not be given than that in the Chrozicie of ves-
terday, of two Frenchmen tried at the \Vest-
minster Sessions on Saturday, and convicted of
An indecent assault against a lad of 18, at seven
o'clock in the evening, near the statue of
Achilles, in Hyde Park. The lad, according
to his own account,. lived in idleness ; or rather,
with his father, doing nothing. Under such
circumstances he was naturally a peripatetic, and
had retired to the Park at that cool hour, for the
benefit of uninterrupted meditation. Had he
accused two Englishmen of an indecent assault
in such a place, there would no doubt have
been some hesitation on the part of the Jury in
giving credence to this peripatetic; but they
afforded a noble proof of their confidence in
the superior moral worth of their countrymen
in setting boldly aside the probabilites of the
case, and giving credence to. this ingenuous
youth; who lived by doing nothing rather than
work at his trade 'as a shoemaker, in preference
•to two Frenchmen who bore a good character.
—These Frenchmen 'are becoming very bold
indeed. Only think of two men who had only
been six weeks in the country, attempting to sa-
crifice the morality of a British youth, on the
very ground hallowed by the` presence of the
Hero of Waterloo. The next step will be to
attempt the beef eaters in the new Palace of
Pimlico. But, thank • God, between us and
such an affront, we have the protecting shield of
a British Jury. Let- no young Englishman,
who does nothing for his bread, despair of
losing virtue as well as bread, so long as there
are. British Juries to believe hint. When these
men have expiated their offence in a correction-
house, let them return to their country, and call
on their -countrymen to emulate-. the patriotic.
virtues of
.Englishmen, by uniformly believing
the evidence of every French youth of 18, who
prefers doing nothing and roaming about in the
cool hour Of the evening, to any two English-
men. aey may accuse.—Mornbig Chronicle.

It W'Ould appear from the statements in the
Edinburgh Papers, that the judicial' inquiries re-
specting the murderx in that City have been re-
newed with increasetlovirpr. This, it is said;
is the resu;t of instructioliggtom 4r. Peel to the
Local Authorities. The' lifsitec the country