The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-12 00:00:00

,„

and thoughtless from being sent among the more
hardened offenders. A first offence frequently saved
the young culprit from being treated with the same
rigour, whkh the repeated transgressions of the ex-
perienced villain deserved ; and the little wretch;
who, by timely and judicious correction, might have
become a valuable member of society, is now sent to
associate with the veteran proficients in their profes-
sion. Such is. the certainty of having all the ex-
pences attending a prosecution defrayed by the pub-
lic purse, thtd an Assize or a Sessions partake more
of a jaunt of pleasure than the performance of a se-
rious and painful duty ; and the stealing of
any article, however ti ifling, or however youth-
ful the offender, is attended by ail. the pomp
of judicial exposure. .• • • • • • • As
a proof that the certainty of funds has tended to
inctttse prosecutions, I will instance the effects pro-
duced by a late enactment, empowering the payment
of expellees in assaults on constables in execution of
their duty. Previous to this ett#thient, not above
once or twice a year Were such indictments pre-
ferred, and then only in aggravated cases. Whereas ,
now, not a Sessions pass, but there are many such
cases, all of which would have been treated as here-
tofore by the contempt they merittll, but for the
remuneration expected. An'ether auxiliary to crime
is, what may appear at first sight a paradox, but
which has tnd'Oubtedly a great effect in swelling the
catalq,,erle of offenders—l mean the efficiency of the
police for the detection of crime; however efficient
they may be for the detection of offenees, yet for the
prevention of them they -are lamentably deficient.
The object of all laws is the prevention of crime;
and this is the justification of all earthly punishment,
in order to deter others from committing a breach of
the laws. The prevention of intended crime, there-
fore, is of more importance than its detection after
committal; but when do we hear of a Police-officer
standing between the intention and the act ? On the
other hand, if An urchin is looking about and watch-
ing for All opportunity, instead of timely information
wheueby the authority of the master or of the parent
might interfere, the first step of the Police-officer is
to see- that the crime is sufficiently perpetrated to
convict the offender: . . While our population
has increased only one-fiftla in the last ten years, the
committals for felony have doubled. To what are

we to attribute this disproportionate increase of of-
fences ? To what paramount and irresistible cause
are we to place the demoralization of the people ?
To what but to the destroying, at an age when the
dawn of reason has scarcely opened upon their men-
tal darkness, those feelings of shame and compunc-
tion which are the natural accompaniments of youth,
but to which human nature too frequently yields a

temporary obedience, even greater than to the dic-
tates of conscience at a more advanced age ? It is
to the early imp rionment of mere children, and the
familiarising them within the walls of a prison, which
lay the foundation of that hardihood in crime, which

we in vain attempt afterwards to remedy and pre-
vent." The whole tendency of the English Law is,
as we have said, to draw people in, as it were, to
become criminals. The Statute Book is filled with
sleeping laws, which any one may waken for the
purpose of annoying a poor man. Then the popu-
lation are consigned to the discretion of the worst
description of Magistracy any country was ever
cursed with (a Magistracy without any qualification
but the possession of property, and protected by law
in the exercise of the wildest freaks of discretion,
and parties in most of the cases coming tinder their
cognizance) ; so that the fate of the poor may he said to
be entirely dependent on the caprice of the Justices—
the exaction of bail for misdemeanours, which has the
effect of crowding our prisons for months with per-
sons charged with trumpery offences; these and
numberless circumstances, too obvious to require to
be detailed at present, familiarise the people with
punishment, and deprive it of its terrors, while they
render the population indifferent to crime. But, as
if all these causes were insufficient, a barbarors and
unfeeling Aristocracy, through their mad but wicked
endeavours to monopolize the game of the country,
have, leagued all that constitutes the strength and
boast of this great and civilized country, namely, the
inhabitants of towns, hi a grand system of 4,....L;zi,-.-
ment to the violation of the law, in order to obtain
their fair share of v. ild animals; through which system
the peasantry of the country, the instruments for
procuring the supply through the violation of the
law, are gradually matured into the most hardened
criminals. Sir E. E. Wilmot adds his testimony to
numberless others, that " poaching is one of the
greatest of the auxiliary causes of crime, and is often
the first step on the ladder which leads to the gal-
lows;" and he asks, " by supporting the laws of his
exclusive monopoly, is he (the game preserver) not
affording an excuse to the merchant or fundholder
to purchase those delicacies of the season which none
can sell him but by a breach of the laws ? . .
It is an indisputable fact, that nine out of ten of
those criminals who are annually tried at our bars for
theft and robbery, begin with poaching;" that is,
are made criminals by the Legislators of the country.
By all these devices, we have a large part of our po-
pulation initiated in crime, and skilled in all its mys-
teries. The law is only efficacious in taxing the
community for the formation of criminals, through
premature imprisonments and punishments, effi-
cacious only in encouraging to crime, but it is
powerless against those whom it has once trained.
Here is the difficulty, and it is one which the en-
deavours of the Metropolitan Parishes will not be
able to meet. Great rewards will ever defeat the
object, because one of the first fruits will be the re-
newal of the blood-money system, which will revolt
the feelings of the community. We shall return to
this subject.—Morning Chronicle.
The position in which the Administration will
stand, when confronted with the Legislature is per-
haps the most aukward and discreditable ever occu-
pied by a British Ministry. This Ministry began
its career by loud professions of economy, and its
efforts were immediately directed, we fear too suc-
cessfully, to involve the country in a war which can-
not fail to be expensive, and which can by no possi-
bility be productive either of glory or advantage; a
war by which, whatever success may attend it in a
merely military point of view, the character and the
interests of England are sure to suffer; a war which
is not piratical only because it can yield no spoil;
a war which in its principles and its commence-
ment is worthy only of a government of pi-
rates, and which will have been undertaken
professedly on behalf of a nation of pirates.—
This appears 'to be the actual result of the foreign
policy of Ministers; nor is its position less discre-
&table as it respects the domestic policy of the Em-
pire. There is one great and leading question of
domestic policy which divides the Statemen and
the whole population of the empire, although in very
unequal proportions—the question of the Catholic
Claims. A very great majority of the Members of
the Cabinet have repeatedly declared their opinion,
that the concession of these claims is a measure in-
dispensible to the welfare and tranquillity of the
State. To this opinion they still profess to adhere;
and yet the influence and authority of the Cabinet
is not to be exerted in Parliament in favour of the
measure. A more revolting sacrifice of principle to
the love of place, we will venture to say, has'never
been exhibited; nor can any thing more degrading
to the character of public men be easily imagined.
They call themselves Ministers of the Crown, but
so far as this question is concerned they lower them-
selves into the character of slaves of the Crown ; or
rather they expose themselves to the contempt of
mankind, in regard to all questions in the ambiguous
character of half-minister, half-slave. The clearest
proof of the total absence of principle is furnished
against those upon whom, from their official station,
the duty more peculiarly devolves of devising and
promoting measures for the internal welfare of the
State, if they consent to the neutrality of Govern-
ment upon the question of claims, the concession of
which they, in common with the great majority of
their colleagues, deem essential to its domestic
peace and prosperity. How, for instance, with any
pretensions to honour or conscience, can the Mar-
quis or Lansdowne have assumed the name and
fesP9D3ibilitY of SegficarY ofState fq the LlQine