The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDO. JOL-E.:\AL

Notwithstanding the passengers in the streets
of London were stunned with the cries of
hawkers, announcing the particulars of the cap-
ture of Stephenson, it seems to be believed,
though it is not ()main, that he has escaped to
America; and the next inquiry is, whether the
Government of the United States will give him
up. " Clearly not. There is no treaty which
binds them and us to a reciprocal surrender of
moral or legal delinquents; am! such treaty beleere
non-existent, he has violated no laev it) America-.
There, therefore, he has a right to shelter, and
atel we believe.
to the usual security of persons living in pceee
in the country which they inhabit. At leas!,
such is our view of the subject,
rational men will concur with us. 'acre is „ot
a subject of greater delicacy in the public law of
nations than that which reguithes the state of
fugitives from one country to another. Thc line
which separates criminal from political offences
is, in many cases, indistinguishable; and if
men, upon a principle of morals, arc to be
seized and given up for the former, it will not
be long before all the latter shall be, by expla-
nations and glosses, drawn within their character
and circumscription, and then, as Gibbon justly
observes, the whole world would be but eiee
great prison : there would be no escape from
tyrannic power, whether exercised by single:
despots, by aristocratic combinations, or by
triumphant rebels.— Timex.
The wretched man (if we maw apply that
name to him) Burke, has made a more ample
confession as to his horrid practices than leo;
been before made public. It is to be well un-
derstood that these statements of his arc to be
received with extreme caution : he cannot he be-
lieved, even at the moment when sent to render
his final account. Hope he has none in tine
world ; but the habits of a wicked life are not to
be shaken off in a moment, though death be
about to follow, and falsehood be et once MA-
lignant and vain. He cannot, probably, speak
the truth, even if he would ; yet though his af.;‘,
sertions be unworthy of credit, facts cannot alteG
and we think there arc sufficient of these to
prove that there Las been an hideoue megligettee
on the part of the medical men who reeeiYed
the bodies of the Murdered. It is said tlieee
flare is to he tried. We hope no general prin-
ciple of law or practice will be violated to get at
this wretch and his wife. The short time that
they, in the course of nature, have to breathe ihei
common air, is not a boon of such importance
that it is worth the while to rend it from them, if
a precedent might thereby be established capable
of misapplication. It is clear that if Hare is to
be tried, he cannot be tried on any of the thrce,
charges included in the indictment on which
Burke was tried and convicted solely through his
evidence.—lbid.

We were not a little surprised at the acquittal
of Helen Macdougal by an Edinburgh Jury
but we are still more surprised at a statement in
an article which we have extracted from the Ca-
ledonian Mercury, that two of the Jurymen
were opposed to the conviction of Burke, from
conceiving that the evidence against hiinevas nut
sufficiently clear. The paper in question sup-
poses this strange error in judgment ettribut-
able to the effect produced on understandings not
certainly of the first order, by the eloquence of
the advocate for Burke. It would appear the
big-heads, on which our northern neighbours
were taught to plume themselves some time ago.
in an elaborate phrenological article in one of
their Jounials, are, after all, not much better for
mental purposes than the smaller heads of the
south. A Jury capable of acquitting Mac-
dougal may be equalled, but cannot be surpassed
in mental obliquity; but the two Jurymen who
wished to acquit Burke must have been alto-
gether deranged. And, after all, if they weie
deranged, what are we to think of those who
could put them on such a trial ? We shall be
told, perhaps, supposing the eloquence of the
Advocate to have led these poor men so far
astray, that this is an argument against allow-
ing Counsel for prisoners. But may it not
also be an argument against trials by Jury ?
If a Jury can be so easily bamboozled by an Ad-
vocate, may not they be as easily bamboozled
by the insidious eloquence of a Judge ? But
the Judge may be fair in his charge ; then the
result is dependent on the honour of the Judge,
rather than on the capacity of the Jury. That.
great injustice is done every day by Juriee, and
has always been done, is matter of notoriety.
We need not go to Edinburgh fur instances.
There are now in Newgate, under sentence of
death, two raw Irish lads, convicted of an un-
natural offence, on the evidence of one female,
contradicted on the trial by several witnesses as
well us by the circumstances of the case. E.
cept the Jury who convicted these youths, we
do not believe there is to be found in this wide
metropolis one individual who believes them
guilty. A few months ago a respectable gen-
tleman was most unjustly convicted, and sen-
tenced to half a year's imprisonment, fur an sd-
leged attempt against the virtue of a girl.—
, Several instances of most incredible attempts;
were stated by the girl ; and although the gen-
tleman was able on the trial to prove an alibi
by mast respectable witnesses, in all the instances
but one, on the unsupported evidence of this
girl he was found guilty. Having succeeded ie
establishing his innocence t,o the satisfitction of
the Home Secretary, he was liberated long be-
fore the lapse of the period of his sentence ; but
no thanks to the Jury. We took pains to make
some inquiries into this case, and learned that
the Jurors reproached themselves afterwards
for having given way to one of their number,
an individual more distinguished for furious zeal
than judgment. In this way the fate of indi-
viduals in this country is determined. The
guilty are often acquitted, and the innocent con-
demned. The best reasnn for the existence of
the Institution is, that bad Judges under bad
Governmests would convict, against evidence,
all whom it was wished to convict, and acquit,
against evidence, all whom it was wished to ac-
quit. In this way, the minds of :nen would be
completell prostrated. On' the other hand, the
injustice of Juries is of the nature of chance, and
does not discdurage men, the disposition to rely
on our good fortune being a part of our nature.
The errors in judgment of Juries, too: serve oc-
casionally to correct bad laws, which arc thus
defeated, but which the Legislature would not
repeal. Injustice by accident is like suffering
by accident. Were the commander of a regi-
ment to select only one man for punishment on
account of a particular act, all the regiment might
be deterred, whereas the same regiment would.
again and again expose itself to a lire, by which
several individuals .are cut off. On the other
hand, we are satisfied that both our Laws and
our Judges would have been better, lent for the
existence of Juries. We have a ~•;e v curious
statement on this point in Reeve's History
ihe English Late. " Sir Thomas More,' ete.

says, " being informed that the Judges had ex-
pressed their disapprobation of the injunctions
he had granted, caused a docket to be made .t 4
every injunction, and the cause of it, which he
had granted while he was ClanOrt'or ; and in-
viting all the Judges to 4.1.111 e with 'flint it;
the Council Chamber ht Westininster, he in-
troduced the subif.et after dinner; when, upon
full discussion of every one of them, the ,Ttitig•
confessed 'ne could have acted ero tTherwise.
He tken offered, that if the aitdges of `spew
Ccruit to whom it rnore especially 'be±.)ged,
from their office, to reform the rigritr of the law,
would, upon reasonable consideration, by their
discretion, and as he thought they were in ton=
science bound, mitigate and temper tht 't-Igour
of the law--no more injunctions 4iould be
granted by him. To this they '?vould make no
engagement ; upon which he told them, that as
they themselves forced him of necessity to issue
ip'junctions to relieve the people's injuries, thy
could no longer blame him. We are informetf,
that afterwards, in a confidential -conversation,
he accounted for the backwardness of the Judges
in the following manner t-'-That they saw how,
by the verdict of a Jury, they might tratAg'i'e
all difficulties and odium from atitsgves to
the Jurors, 'which they considemi as their great
defence tend security ; whtl-eas the Chancellor
was obliged to stand alone the assault of every
malignant observation." Responsibility, as is
well known, diminishes in the ratio in which it
is shared by numbers. Hence Committees of
the House of Commons were, by their own ad-
mi4liion, guilty of acts of horrid injustice anti
corruption, from which the iadividuUls rf which-
they were composed would !,eitarately have
shrunk. In like manner, sys Wieve, the Chan-
cellors of this country, ur.cheeked and uncon-
trouled, and, what is 'more, dependent for their
situation on the e.-,price of the Crown, have been
less suspeetrd of corruption than the other
Judges. \Ve do not mean to say that Juries
can ra present be diTensed with ; but a time,
we hope, will come, when the safety of ere sub-
ject may be rceoncileable with an shier tribunal.
—lllorniv, Chronicle.

is evidently h tine same situation, and for the
eulteiliement, he will be only liable to transpon
tation. Such, in a few words, appears to be the
legal state of the case, but his apprehension would
nevertheless be the means of recanting some
pao of the property with which he has at+..'(...z;difecl',
The bankers a 5 h tyotki 'lnatter
acutely atA ba7e 'efe4 with great zeal and
tiroinrittide to beilig Stephenson to justice; awl
'Weha. Ito doubt the public will derive consi-
&fable advantage from the 'e'lrcumstance as it
has occurred. It it proper to state that a per-
son takinp can t xehequer-bill can always have it
'endorsed to him, and such bill being
*hat is termed ear-snarled, cannot be divested
either by felony or fraud. Such a security may
always be reclaimed, and followed into *hateYer
hands it may have passed.. It is in fact ina-
lienable except by the party himself or herself,
as the taxre may be, and its value is recoverable
even in case of being burnt or destrOYed, if the
person claiming it can proVe it was specially en-
dorsed. Such t irecaution would save thou-
san big Post.
It will be seen, from what is stated in another
part of our Paper, that a confession of the dread-
ful atrocities committed by Burke anti Hare has
at length been procured Itott the former, and
that he lays the greater pint of the blame of
them. ttpon the latter. By what IaVF, or for
*hat reason, such a wretch is Witllheld from the
hands of justice, we awn ourselves incompetent
to form the,. slightest judgment. It is true that
he Vaned King's evidence against his asso-
ciate in a trial for three murders; but it is
stated on the word of Burke himself, if the
word of a dying murderer be worth any.
thing., that he was accessary along with him
to the perpetration of about thiity ; and why
should not the evidence against him for some
one of these ateetities be gone into ? Surely
the Lord Advocate did not go the length in his
eattmunications with Hare, of promising him a
free pardon for all the murders which he had
committed, on condition of his giving such evi-
dence as would convict Burke, We are not
aware, however, of any other ground on
which the Lord Advocate could avoid
initging the horrible wretch to trial ; and we
therefore confidently trust that something will be
done by him to satisfy the public that the
sword of justice neither sleeps or rusts in the
scabbard. It appears to us also, as indeed it
must appear to every one, that something more
than a mere exposure of those who received the
bodies of the murdered persons must-take place,
before the public .can be satisfied that full jus-
tice has been done. If the least attention was
paid to the state of the bodies, by those who acted
as receivers, they must have been aware that they
were deprived of life by violence, and if so
they must be considered as even much more
culpable than the perpetrators. We are glad
to perceive, however, that a Meeting of the
College of Physicians in Edinburgh, which will,
undoubtedly, throw some light on the aubject
has been summoned, and that another of she
College of Surgeons is speedily to follow. The
public look to these meetings, not only as a
means of tranquillizing it on the subject of the
murders,a nd preventing their repetition ; but of
exposing those who have been guilty of dis-
gracing it, and bringing them to justice ; and
we think too well of the high character of both
to harbour a doubt that they will shrink from
the performance of such a great and public duty.
—Morning Advertiser.

All men are bound to reverence and respect
the laws ; but, to be reverenced and respected;
the laws should be equal and just in Omit' opera-
tion. Cain there, we will ask; be hhy thing like
justice in a law which eotedOttins a poor fellow
to the payment of a tine of 1001., or five years'
service in the Navy, for smuggling a single
pound of tobacco, when it is quite notorious
that no solidi number of our women of fashion
pride themselves on being attired in smuggled
goods, and when a Chief Justice's carriage was
searched, some few years ago, for what were
then mildly called his lady's peccadillos, but
without entailing any such consequences ? Mr.
Hobler, the Mansion-house Clerk, gave a still
more apt illustration of the inequality of the law
on the occasion we allude to, when he said,
" Yes, my Lord, a Banker and M.P. may de-
fraud people of thousands and thousands of
pounds, and it is then doubtful whether there
is any law to touch him ; but a poor simple fel-
low is to be imprisoned for five years by a sum-
mary process, without even the benefit of an
appeal to a Jury, and that merely for the paltry
duty on a pound of tobacco:' We do not say
that the Revenue ought not to be protected ;
still less that a noisome foreign weed is not a
fit object of taxation ; but there is such a prin..
eiple as "de minimis non otrat ;" and to
look upon such a trumpery affair as this, and
visit it with such disproportionate consequences,
does infinitely more harm, by the bad effect
it has on men's minds, than any good which The following transaction has excited a very
it can even in its consequences produce to
great sensation in this city, and has induced a
the Revenue. The fault here seems to be, suspicion, that some miscreants disposed to imi-
that no discretion is lodged with the Magis- tate the Edinburgh murders are lurking about
trate ; but that the mere fact of possession being our habitations. On Monday evening week,
proved, extenuating circumstances, amounting between eight and nine o'clock, three men,
even to an utter ignorance of all guilt, are of no
avail ; and a cold-blooded Officer of Govern . hahited as -sailors, called. at the shop of Mrs.
Whitehead, a huckster, Walmgate, and en-
ment is able to say to the Magistrate "Do us ti •, "
euiredlif she could inform where they could pro-
and he must do it. All penalties and punish- cure. lodgings ? She pointed them to a house
ments should be, in some degree, proportioned on the opposite side of the street ; but they told
to the offences ; at any rate should not be so her they had already been there and had not
disproportioned as to make every one sensible•of, succeeded. She then mentioned to them another
and dissatisfied with, their operation. If the house in Paver's-lane, in Walmgate, the way to
possession of a pound of untaxed tobacco he so which they affected not to know. Wishful to
heinous an offence in a common sailor so as to render them all the assistance that civility could
esbject him to a penalty which all the world suggest, she offered her son,a fine child ten years
knows he cannot pay, or to five years of bon- of asse, to accompany them and show them the
dage, surely the possessor of smuggled silks and way°. Whether it was that some gloomy appre-
laces should share a similar fate ; and then the pension bad arisen in the mind of the child, or
laws, pinching those who can alter them, would there was something repulsive in the appearance
of the strangers, eve soon assume, we suspect, a milder character. say, lad
s cannot but t
Tn all cases of Revenue, a doubling, trebling, or objected to undertake the mission, and it was not
quadrupling of the duty, would be film enough ; •
until the peremptory command of his patent had
and, in that case, if a tar, thinking to treat his been issued, that he left the protection of her
friend on shore with a pound of cheap tobacco, home for the company of these unknown wan-
is caught tripping, why let him pay four times deters. When they had arrived in the lane,
the amount of the duty which it otherwise would which is a retired and lonesome spot, one of the
have paid to the Revenue ; and, we warrant it, villains suddenly seized the youth, and ex-'
Jack will be shy, for the future, of treating his
ii send at so high a rate. But to talk of 1001. claimed, "Is this the door ?" whilst he applied
a large plaster, seemingly a composition of pitch
to a poor fellow who, probably, never possessed and tar, to the mouth of their astonished guide.
a hundred shillings, is like asking him to pay In
off the National Debt ; which said debt, by the endeavouring to avoid the violence that was
offered him, he averted his head from his assail.
bye, requiring excessive duties, is the root of ant, and this act caused the greater part of the
the evil.—Morning Herald. plaster oi fasten upon his cheek, thus preserving
Every effort has been made, but hitherto in- once half of his mouth free for respiration ; and,
effectually, to apprehend the delinquent Stephen- providentially, a girl happened to be standing on
son and his accomplice Lloyd. Too much some stairs, in an opposite passage, and was wit-
praise cannot be given to the Government for ness of the horrid transaction. She called out to
the great activity of their exertions; and we feel them to know what they were going to do with
assured that the Banking and Mercantile por- the lad ? When they hastily tore off theplasters
tion of our countrymen duly appreciate them. and ran away. The child was severely hurt by
With respect to the property belonging to St. the violence of this operation, and so strongly
Bartholomew's Hospital, of which Stephenson adhesive had the composition been, that some of
was Treasurer, converted by him to his own use, it remained on his cheek three days after this oc-
the offence appears to be no more than a breach currence. 'What the ultimate intentions of these
of trust and confidence, and although an act of villains might be, we du not pretend to say, but
the most heinous description, does not render it is evident, that had the plaster taken the effect
him liable to any penal consequences. With the intended suffocation must very shortly have
respect to the Exchequer Bills, we have already been the result. The dark mystery of the trans-
shown to our readers, upon the best legal au- action is further heightened fiom the fact haying
thority, that a bona fide holder can demand pay- I since been ascertained, that these men bad
meat for them, hooever illegally or improperly actually engaged lodgings prior to their applica-
the person making the sale may have come by tion to Mrs. Whitehead, where they had gone
them. If the Bills or Bonds were left with f with the infamous preparation in their posses-
him as a naked mere deposit, his selling or sion, after a long inspection of her residence from
pledging them would only amount to a breach of the opposite side of the street. On Tuesday
confidence. But Mr. Peel's Act, commonly k morning, the same three wretches had the effron-
known as the Embezzlement Act, makes it a tery, though in a different dress, to exhibit them-
felony to misappropriate securities of this &scrip- selves in Walmgate, singing in the middle of the
tion, delivered to a Banker under a special 1 street, as distressed seamen. The child, White-
written •authority,- to. k6ep‘ • - there for rs theoahead,'saw them, au•d, immediately pointed them
oveitia's use, or •to -hold' them aubjeat; atees tea Sas 41e Men
.WhO
.144,jrijnaed him :the
his 'disposal. Unforttniately,• hosStotii . night. - Theys soon saw. that:theicasera,
very rarely that this airecantissii is taketoln dee 'noticed, _anct that fear which ever. saccompansea
liyering such securities, • either t6.batikerit 'or tts• conSeibuSsguilt, induced theth to ,makelospeetly:
brOkers.' When this is • 110V-die-le, we lisvelse- fli fit on t e Iltill road.o--- York -Conran!: ••
foiOshowi tha.foWero t''' • tratiallao dies lasnaliersoSi - , • •
ands the right of purehasers' to l'eaovetooptin 0,1113 day, last weekoaaraiesmatean. Aberdaeos
therm:' We have heard; it asked, what: lite-seat • onicsming to his shop:after breakfast, found a pans ,of
lot ie 'Or tie offeriet• committed Seephee oino• Valais* one windows.. broken, but as he -iniard
attiihnt.ed the oiscurnstatice to ace.ider4,: wis.sv2Y
does it amount (legally speakiiio s awystlioassa,arbit'F'h!
. wad' exploited. to his surprise, when, some twee eftea
mime than an act of bankriaptey,?,•
tngi to-pick:4M a last lii his back-shop, a pact partridge
re he is onl hi over • Re,,d,; ;;o viartinosthrougleaspane of the hank window,
612 A a tin takititai-14 itte"iitstoncrs4lo/•=sifecttd its Cakdon iiawaffrae s ‘et ow/

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR,