The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-07 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM TEE DAILY PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
TIMES.—One thing is certain with respect to the most
contested point of the Queen's Speech ; and that is, that how-
ever taunted Sir Robert Peel may have been for the (what we
think salutary) delay which he resolutely interposed in making
any declaration of his intentions, he now amply compensates
by the promptitude with which he is disposed to proceed. He
is ready with his finances ; "he does not even intend to post.
pone the announcement of the budget to that period of the year
at which it is usually brought forward :" and the corn question,
the great and important corn question, is announced for Wed-
nesday next. The departure of the Duke of Buckingham
from the Administration, of which he had just become
a Member, is as yet tke only outward sign from which
we can judge—a sign which, though it betokens im-
portaet modifications in the sliding scale, gives no
reason to suppose that the Government are prepared
to withdraw their expressed determination to support . If
that were a resolution that were to continue for ever, as mortals
t
speak, or even for a long time, we should be sorry for it: But
Sir Sir Robert Peel is an enemy, and so are all p
states-
men, to harsh changes ; and he may perhaps consider that a
recurrence ftom a variable scale of the most complicated cha-
racter, perplexing alike both venders and purchasers, to a
simple and single calculation of so much per quarter, would be
like taking horses out of the most confining and stringent har-
ness, 'and letting them run with a single rein and snaffle-bit.
That he will simplify the present scale, however, we entertain
no doubt. There will neither be so many variations of duty,
nor so many positions assumed at which a fresh duty is to
apply But what, we would beg to ask, will be the result
.
of all this simplification? It may probably be beneficial
when compared with the present complicated Act. It
Ir. may, we hope, also prevent corn from being kept back till the
market can be flooded by a certain influx at a very low duty ;
but still, such a simplification is obviously neither more nor less
than an approximation to the fixed duty. And that, we should
suspect, will be the final result—not this year, nor the next,
perhaps, but still the final result—of all legislation upon the ad-
mission of foreign corn. If we come to it gradually, it may
occasion less shock in the market ; but come to it, we verily
believe, we shall. In fact, what was the ground of our opposi-
tion to the late Ministry upon this point ? Not that they ad-
vocated a fixed duty; but that, in truth, finding themselves
beaten in an important election, they tossed up the whole finan-
ces of the country, simply with a view to create mischief and
confusion. Then did they blazon, also, with merely injurious
clamour, their notion—never till then entertained—of a
fixed duty. Had they never been defeated in the Not-
tingham election, and had they never, in consequence,
found themselves in a minority of the House of
Commons, we should have heard no more of a fixed
duty from them, than of a fresh edition of the Koran
or Talmud. They than took a useful measure, which
till then they had never contemplated—made it the subject of a
popular outcry—and now mean to avail themselves of it against
the more cautious, perhaps timid, procedure of their political
adversary. This is the history of the moveable scale and the
fixed duty, as evinced in the conduct of the two parties: the
one does not proceed so far, perhaps, as he might ; the other
embraces the popular and useful act, but only as a pretext—
only to blacken and defame his adversary. The one proposes
what he can carry, in order to carry it : the other proposes
what he cannot carry, in order to make a dust, and set two
interests by the ears. However, therefore, we may approve,
and however we may continue to advocate, a fixed duty, we feel
we are in no degree approximating to those who are crying it
up to excite clamdur, and to raise an opposition to their politi-
cal opponents ,—a suicidal opposition, since by those opponents
a more real approach to their own measure will probably be
made in three months, than has been, or is likely to be, by
themselves in ten years.
ADVERTISER.—The position assumed by her Majesty's
Government serves to prove that the several matters of policy
now pending, rest exclusively between the people and the agri-
cultural monopolists; consequently that the Whig faction, or
middle region of opinion between right and wrong, is extinct;
and that the political struggle now in progress is strictly be-
tween the two extremes—of commercial and general freedom,
and feudal and universal despotism. The people have reason
to acknowledge a consciousness of their power even in the
mere allusion to the Corn-laws in the Royal Speech. How
comes it that a Tory Cabinet barely refers to their modification ?
But last Session, in the months of Tories, ay, and of Whigs
too, those laws were perfection. Ilow is it the Tamworth
Baronet appoints the ensuing Wednesday to introduce a motion
concerning them in the Commons? Is it from his own benig-
nity to the cause of the people ? Folly. But let the answer
be broad and plain enough—it is—THE POWER OF THE
PEOPLE ! ! Here, then, is the country in a proud attitude.
It is not only exacting, but enforcing justice from its
head opponents. It is from the Tories—a very Government
composed of Tories—it is wringing acknowledgment of its ma-
nufacturing distress, and accomplishing, a Reform of the Corn-
laws ! But to refer to the subject merely as the exultation
of comparati:e ascendency, were beneath and short of the
popular sentiment and exigencies. The utility in adverting to
it is to show how completely, on the exercise of that power,
hangs the country's security. To parallel the present immi-
nency of the national interests were impossible in the annals
of this kingdom's history. The balance is so critical, that
either all shall be with, or all against the popular cause. Of
an approach to a medium condition there is now not even the
pretence. Either Conservatism shall yield in its intimidation
to the wants of the country, or popular exigencies, in the pu-
sillanimity of their advocates, tremble on the brink of lasting
overthrow. In itself nothing were more ignominious than
the position of the existing Cabinet. The very measures
to which its members are on the eve of giving assent,
are the identical grounds on which they founded
their opposition to the Government of their predecessors.
The very slightest concession on the Corn-laws they ran-
corously opposed up to the last second of the Melbourne Ad-
ministration ; and now, forsooth, "the Corn-laws are to be
altered," even as the Tory organ expresses it, " the earliest
possible day has been fixed fir the development of the Govern-
ment measure for the alteration of the Corn-laws, so that this
absorbing quelion will be settled without loss of time." Of
all bitter commentaries on the principles of the men new
in office, none we are aware of ever exceeded this. But
to point it out, to enable the people to judge how much of
real concern towards their condition is comprised in the tactics
of their Conservative rulers, is the object in our exposing, and
the goal at which we leave it. For, unless to that effect, it is
with the acts, not the motives, of Sir It. Peel and his colleagues,
as a party, in the country. we have to do. The measures which,
out of the extremii y 01 terror, may be dragged from them, a e
shall support if really of beneficial tendency to the nation.
We shall look purely to the measures, and forget the men.
We shall remember that to bring into operation plans of essen-
tial benefit to the kingdom, will be to overthrow even the per-
nicious influences of Conservatism; and, encouraged by this
recollection, we shall consequently ever be at the post to sign
enactments of worth with our approval. As to the counte-
nance or condemnation of their regularly quashed quondam
nvals the Whigs, it must form a topic they will scarcely, we
should think, be at much trouble of inquiring into. The advo-
eacy of good measures, by that blighted faction, unfortunately,
to ensure for their opinions now any respect, come too late.
As we have observed, the partisans in the country at the
existing crisis arc two—the people and their enemies. Those
who had not formerly sided with the Whigs are the men
now the most probable to be of assistance to the popular
sense. And for ourselves, we are of the opinion of
Lord Brougham, when he said that " the best thing
to be done with the Corn-laws was to repeal them--
gradual, indeed, in progress, but total in result.' This posi-
tion is clearly also our own; and, when it is considered that,
as the country has swayed the power of' forcing a Tory Cabinet
down to the Lower House, with propositions affecting those
very feudal tenures described but so few months back as unap-
proaehible to any forms of mutation, it may be owned it would
be derogatory and abject, indeed, to suppose that the same om-
nipotence were not still capable of being exercised to an exten-
sion of the same essential and salutary purpose. At all events,
one observation strikes intuitively, to the effect of Sir Robert's
Government being founded on the principle of confederacy,
whether, like Mr. Fox, in justification of the anomalous posi-
tion he himself stepped into with Lord North, Sir Robert,
too, had not wisely be on t. e same side in exclaiming, " Ought
we not, then, to confederate with him who can give us the
greatest strength ?"

GLOBE---The Bar, and other persons assembled
at the Criminal Court, were on Thursday evening
considerably surprised, on the Grand Jury- entering
the Court with the bills with which they had closed
their duties, to hear the Clerk of the Arraigns an-
nounce that among them was " a true bill against
Alexander Baring, now Lord Ashburton, Francis Bar-
ing,
and llumfrey Mildmay, for conspiracy." It is un-
derstood that the indictment charges the defendants
with -a conspiracy to bribe certain members of
the Legislature of Mexico to pass a Bill to prevent fo-
reigners from holding land within that State ; and
that the motive which induced the defendants thus
to interpose, was to deprive the prosecutor, one
Samuel Moore, of the advantages of a contract en-
tered into between him and the defendants. The
Recorder intimated—and we concur in the opinion
he expressed—that the Court had no jurisdiction.
We are:; :far from assuming that there exists any,
the slightest, tenable grounds for this indictment,
„..

thus preferred. The previous high and perfectly un-
sullie!freputatiorrof the parties, charged, will preserve

them !in the. estimation of all acquainted with their
character, -individually and collectively, from any
injury to- their fair fame by this charge. We
know- the facilities afforded' by the law to the
vindiaii'eneSS of revengeful natures, which, foiled
in tfleir ',attempts to accomplish favourite ob-
jects by supposed .or actual, but perfectly jus-
tifiable :interposition, or hoping to extort from.
fear vv!hatthey have failed to obtain by entreaty, go
before a Grand Jury with a Bill alleging 'some high
misdemeanor, supply , the prima facie testimony on
which the grand. jurors, strangers to the character,
ignorant of the motives of the prosecutor, and altogether
unacquainted with the circumstances f the case, ex-
cept so far as they are revealed by the technical ver-
bosity of an indictment, the dimensions of which
are frequently expressed in "yards," return a " true
bill." The testimony is ex parte, taken in a chamber
hermetically sealed against intruders • and, without
the necessity of the parties charged being aware of
even the movement against them—the bill is returned
in Court as " found." Malignity is thus gratified, or
cupidity supplied with materials with which to

carry out its corrupt designs—supposing the pro-
secutor to be actuated by malicious or base de-
signs against the person or the purse of the party he
seeks to implicate. In the former case, without
moving an another step, and without rendering him-
self responsible to any crimin-dj jurisdiction for the
perjuries by which he has imposed on the Grand
Jury, whom the law binds by an oath of secrecy as to
what passes before them in t'heir chamber, the injury
is inflicteThe don the reputation and feelings of the inno-
cent. party may be taken into custody on a
Bench-warrant, founded oa an indictment thus ob-
tained—be kept in confinement twenty-four hours,
in order, to afford time for the prosecutor to in-
quire into the validity of the sureties tendered by
the defendant in compliance with the terms of bail im-
posed by the Court, and interminably longer, if he be
unable to procure such sureties. d when he has
done all this, and is prepared, at great expense and
with much anxiety, to repel the charge under the in-
jurious effects of which he may have suffered for
months—the indict nent is never brought down for
trial, nor the prose _litor ever afterwards so much as
heard of. The wratch has gratified his malevolence
to the extent to which he dared to proceed, or he has

• _
failed to effect his purpJse by extorting money to drop
the ?rosecution.
g KANDARD.—The interval since the termination
the
the_second Sc::,icii of 1341 lia.s been employed by
° icqu'aal4 of the IThig-Racliciil party in complaints