The Sun.
London, England, 1827-02-23 00:00:00

S?11IT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It appears, that on Monday last the City of Dublin
Grand Jury found true bills against Mr. Shiel, on the
profecution of -the Attorney-General, for sedition. With
regard to the law and justice of this State proceeding. we
have now no right to question them, they are in better
hands. But end how it may, we consider the policy of
such a prosecution, for such an offence as is attributed to
Mr. Shiel, and at the present crisis, so unwise, that no
conviction or sentence can redeem it. Two-thirds of the
Catholics, we might add nine-tenths of the respectable and
independent men among them, have, for some time past,
looked coldly on the Dublin orators. Shiel now becomes
great from having a great opponent. It was thus with
O'Connell, who swelled into higher note when he had
once prevoked the Attcney-General to measurer eivore3
with him. But the Attorney-General ought not to have
been so provoked in either of these unhappy instances ; he
ought not to stake the character of the Government and
his own reputation on the issue of a battle with any common
scold. To O'Connell he gave the eclat of complete success :
to Shiel, if convicted,he presents the crown of martyrdom.
But knowing, as Mr. Plunkett must from experience, the im -
possibilityof detertniningApriori,wh ether on the clearest tes-
tittiony,he will obtain a verdict from a Dublin jury, there were
abundant reasons in discreet and sober calculation, why he
should never tempt his chance with such a tribunal in times of party
violence, except under extreme necessity, of which there was
undoubtedly no symptom here. It has been the cry of the Orange
incendiaries for years, that so long as Lord Wellesley was Lord-
Lieutenant and Mr. Plunkett Attorney-General, the Crown, in
Ireland, would never obtain redress for an injury, he able to pro-
tect the public peace, or vindicate the honour of his Majesty's
Government, whatever insults or outrages it might suffer. The
Attorney-General knows full well that such has been, for many
a day, the open war-note of the Saurin faction ; and that the
inference founded upon it, was " the evident expediency of
" changing the Executive Government." Further, there was a
pretty clear index of what the Attorney-General ought not ta
have done, in the noisy importunity of the Orangemen at both
sides of the water, calling upon him to prosecute these associators.
Could the Irish Government suppose that its sworn enemies were
giving it sound advice? Was it not manifest that they only laid
a trap for the man in the whole empire whom they most fc-Ir and
hate, and that they who were loudest in hallooing him on, would,
when they found their snare had succeeded, be loudest in exulting
over, and reproaching him? We are, nevertheless, inclined to
hope, that the suspense which now exists with regard to the future
composition of the Cabinet may terminate in such an arrange-
ment as will afford the friends of liberal and equitable measures
towards Ireland an increase of confidence in their success, by
poiverfully restraining the evil spirit of a party, which thwarts
and friistrates every attempt to promote by honest means the wel-
fare of an ill-used people.—Times.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that while the French
Government is trying to abridge the liberty of the press,
British Juries, with their native freedom of character, are
establishing that liberty among us in the rational exercise
of its proper powers and functions. Three causes for
libel were tried on Wednesday ; one in the Court of
King's Bench, one in that of the Common Pleas, and
one in that of the Exchequer. In the two first the
plaintiffs totally failed, the verdicts being for the defend-
ants; and the plaintiff in the last obtained only Is. damages.
We will venture to say that three more trumpery cases were
never brought into Court. An attorney's clerk is quizzed
on an electioneering affair ; a bailiff errs, and gets into a
lady's chamber in pursuit of a debtor, and has all the three
Muses upon him, of prose, poetry, and painting :—a barrister is
conveyed to a watchhouse on a charge of drunkenness or indecency,
and the historic muse of Bow-street reports his exhibition at the
office; and each of these indignant parties seeks for redress in a
Court of Justice ! The thing is preposterous ! Into what a
state of imbecile sensitiveness would the English character
sink, if it could not bear the slightest breath of censure ?
A vigorous reputation will live through, and even laugh at, a
storm of ridicule and scandal ; as the gallant ship still holds on
its course, though some baffling breezes may, at intervals, mingle
with the steady wind that impels it. But we are chiefly induced
to make these remarks, from a desire of offering some suggestions
to the consideration of future juries. It is their duty to listen
most respectfully to the summing up of the Judge,—to receive
the law from him, in all cases in which he is allowed to be its ex-
positor, as from a person instructed in the law, by habit and study,
and placed in the Courts at a considerable expence to the country,
for the explication of the law. Even in cases of libel the
most suspicious, his opinion deserves attention ; but if, after
this, any Judge shall venture to impugn the motives of a jury in
giving their verdict—if he shall insinuate that they have violated
the sacred obligation of their oath—that they have tampered with
their consciences—we hope that a jury thus stigmatised will net,
except they are conscious of guilt, separate till they have called
upon the Judgefor an explanation ; till they have demanded on
what authority, on what mysterious insight into the heart of man,
he has dared to charge them with so dreadful a crime as the wilful
perversion of justice.—lbid.
Mr. Peel introduced last night four Bills for consoli-
dating and amending branches of our Criminal Law. The
speech with which he prefaced his motion was warmly
applauded by the House, and will insure for him from the
country a continuance of the reputation which his excellent
intentions, and his judgment and prudence in giving effect
to them, have already procured for him. The principles
on which Mr. Peel proceeds cannot be too highly com-
mended. From the commeoceolent, indeed, of his legis-
lative efforts, he has endeavoured to purify the law from
all that favours injustice, fraud, and chicanery, and to re-
nounce all the supposed advantages which Government
,derived from the partiality of tribunals. He looks not to
law as a craft, by a skill in which a set of men may be en-
abled, for their own interest, to give one man an unfair ad-
varitage over another, but as a means by which justice
may be afforded to the people with the least difficulty, and
at the least expence. He has very properly availed him-
self of the skill ofprofessional men, who would have entered
on the task with the same exemption from obliquity of
mind which he manifests. The mere lawyer who undertakes the
reform of the law, even if his understanding have suffered from
the chicanery which is so interwoven with the English law, can
with difficulty bring himself to do troy that which ha hz; ac-
quired a knowledge of with so much labour, and which consti-
tutes his claim to distinction. It is in fact exacting too much
from human nature, to expect that lawyers should be efficient re-
formers of law abuses. But their skill may be bought by those
who, like Mr. Peel, can direct it to thepublic good. In the out-
set of his speech, Mr. Peel declared, " that it appeared to him
consistent with common sense that the law should be rendered
clear and intelligible, that as ail are bound to obey it, its provi-
sions should be known to all, and couched in language definite and
precise, that it may be understood and respected." For the ex-
pression alone of this truth he deserves the gratitude of the coun-
try. Duly give effect to it, and what will the English law be ?
Ile has 'ow acquired sufficient reputation to entitle him to the
confidence of the country; and we need not say, that if he pro-
ceed fearlessly is The course on which he has entered, he will con-
fer a greater service nn it than has been done by any former 3li-
nister.—Morning Chronicle.
Every day evinces the great inconvenience which has
arisen from the late long adjournment of Parliament. The
Lord Chancellor states, for instance, that he can now get
no assistance in hearing appeals till after the return of the
Judges from the Assizes, which will be, in fact, till after
the Easter recess. So that on this one head alone a period
of six months, from November to May, is sacrificed by
this injudicious postponement of the meeting of the two
Houses. A multitude of other important matters too,
which, if spread over a sufficient period, would have had
that consideration to which they are each individual:). en-
titled, are now to be huddled into the impossible space of
one week, or else must be postponed till the return of the
Country Gentlemen and the Bar from their respective
Cir.:nits. This is an evil which we all along foresaw,
awl- protested against, and has since become, as our
readers too well know, seriously aggravated by events which
could not, when we did so, be in any manner foreseen. When
Parliament met in November, it should have been kept together. If
it bad been so, much of the public business (including many of
the election petitions) would have been got through. The truth
a great disinclination to meet Parliament has grown up among
official men of late years; enhanced, in some instances, by in-
dolence and a love of ease, and not a little by the teazing, inter-
locutory debates, which have lately become so much the practice.
The country, however, has a right to expect that its business will
be done and attended to, independently of such considerations ; ,nd
there cannot be, we think, a more striking specimen of the ill
effects of. procrastination to -ail parties; than that which the pre-
sent state of public business, arising out of it, exhibits.—
etrorning Herald.