The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-31 00:00:00

Of Parliament" loses its character almost as ra-
pidly as ale runs into vinegar in hot weather.,
ft is some justification of the Country Gentle-
men, that the course they pursued with such un-
fortunate effect was recommended to them by a
man on whose wisdom they had as much confi-
dence as a good Catholic has in the infallibility
of the Pope. What we complain of is, not
that the Country Gentlemen should not on all
occasions be distinguished for absolute wisdom,
but that they should have the power to try expe-
riments on the people. Every fresh Act of
Parliament clothes them with fresh powers, so
that their folly as well as their wisdom has ample
scope to display itself in every direction. Their
care extends to everything, their controul is un-
limited.

" While the Parish Courts (says Mr. Brereton) were in
use, the Justices of the Peace met quarterly, and their pro-
ceedings were in due course of law; but in modern times,
and especially within the last thirty years, the irregular
Petty Sessions Court, assuming to itself the powers, and
disregarding the forms of the Quarter Sessions, arrogating
to itself the rights, and dispensing the duties of the Parish
Authorities, has demolished the Court of lower orb,' and
left it little more than a useless, or (perhaps, in its present
fallen state) mischievous wreck and ruin. This modern
Court of Equity, though now iu many parts of the country
it meets weekly, though the number of Justices has been
multiplied twenty-fold, and though there is no indisposi-
tion on their part to activity,* yet groans under the weight
and pressure of its business. Such is the mode of con-
ducting business, Or such the nature of the business which
the Justices affect to conduct, that at many adjournments,
though they exhaust their attention, burn out their
candle, and are left in the dark,' there is a residuum of cla-
mour and insolence, which are not usually practised before
rank or fortune or talent. Business is here disposed of by
summary convictions, without course of law—with hear-
ing only one side—without a precedent—without oath of
witnesses, or the intervention of a Jury—without a'record,
or even a reporter, and on parole authority, by winks,
frowniug, and countenance,' and yet the most unremitting,
assiduity is baffled by the accumulation of intricate and dif-
ficult causes. Is it that crime, and misdemeanour, and
profligacy, are here at a premium ? or is it that this mo-
dern Court has no precise boundaries and limitations to its
power, or that one Court attempts to discharge the various
duties of fifty ? or is it that this Court is the common but-
tery for a whole neighbourhood—the begging hatch at
which the Justices cut and carve for the labouring po-
pulation reduced, in many districts, through their in-
tervention, to a solid mass of dependent pauperism?—

These are the causes which
have contributed to accumulate business, as it is called,
at this upstart Court, though the lawless proceedings of
congregations of dicasts, converted the industrious labourers
of the country, first, into eleemosynary pensioners of the
Justices, then into the despised paupers of the parish ;
then, of course, into gangs of poachers, pilferers, and fe-
lons; and lastly, into convicts, transports, penitents, refu-
gees, and cast-aways, to the scandal of the nation. Alter
and amend as you please the Game Laws or Criminal Laws
of the country—yet, if you allow a local Court thus con-
stituted and thus acting, to modify at pleasure the general
code, you will have poachers and paupers, and criminals
in abundance. This Court has, for the last thirty years
and more, been the very essence of rural police and juris-
prudence ; and however sore a subject of discussion it may
be to the thousands of local arbitrators scattered over the
face of the country, it would be absurd to attempt any exa-
mination of the present state of the rural population, with-
out bringing this Court, its history, its constitution, its
proceedings, its usurpation by law and without law, into
full operation."
The country is to be pitied, which has an in-
stitution like that of Justices of the Peace, which
enables every crotchety, or over active or tyran-
nical, individual to exercise his powers at the ex-
pence of the community. Let men once find
their way into the Commission, and they will
soon carve out work for themselves. We plume
ourselves on nothing so much in the course of
our Editorial labours, as on having contributed
not a little to thwart an attempt of some most
worthy Members of Parliament, a few years ago,
to favour Scotland with the Sessional powers of
English Justices. Would to God that we could
assist in liberating England from this malignant
excrescence.—/bid.

Had Mr. Canning lived, we should have seen
whether his plans of retrenchment would have
been carried into effect, or what his plans were.
Our opinion is that he could not have carried
any retrenchment plan into effect that would have
been of any avail. No man would say that either
the army or the navy should be reduced, if they
contemplated for a moment, the present relative
situation of England with other countries, more
particularly her relations with her formidable
rivals, France, Russia, and the United States.
And as to the retrenchment in the Civil or Cle-
rical Departments, those who are in possession
of the good things in those departments would
have taken care that, sooner than he should have
lopped off one iota belonging to them they would
have shoved him out of his place. Would the
Chancery, the Bench, the Court, or the pen-
sioners, have agreed that he should have fallen
foul on either their salaries, their perquisites, or
their patronage ? Mr. Canning professed much
as to retrenchment, but this, in our opinion,
he did in order the more effectually to please, and
probably delude, the people. He knew that the
only way was to tickle them with honeyed words,
but he knew that retrenchment in the quarters
that could best bear it was out of the question.
But the word retrenchment has become quite
hackneyed with us. It signifies nothing, or if it
does, it should be construed in a contrary sense
to the general acceptation of the word, and mean
regular additions to the Civil, Pension, and other
Lists.—Morning Herald.
The affairs of Portugal are drawing to a rapid
crisis, but how that crisis may terminate it is impos-
sible at present to foresee. An Evening Paper talks
of the necessity of obtaining a guarantee from the
Royal Absolutist now at Vienna, but we are in-
clined to think it would be quite as difficult to
make him observe good faith as his uncle at
Madrid. Should Miguel be once invested with
sovereign power, there is every reason to believe
that the Constitution would not last a week, and
what then is to be the policy of England? Shall
we, after being mainly instrumental in giving char-
tered freedom to the Portuguese, passively see
our own system destroyed, or attempt to vindi-
cate it by an army ? In the one case we might
remain at peace with the nations of the continent,
but our influence over Portugal would be lost ; •
in the other, we could go to war only in viola-
tion of the principle which we have always pro-
fessed tQ act upon—that of not interfering in the
internal government of any country. The osten-
sible object of our sending troops to Portugal was
to repel invasion, not support the charter. Can we
then, with any thing like consistency, employ
military force in defence of that Charter, if the
Portuguese themselves are disposed to abandon
it ? That collectively
they are not ardent abet-
tors of the cause of freedom is quite obvious, else
.
there would not have
found arraog those been so many opponents
who would seem the most
warmly to espouse it. The Princess Regent
herself appears
and the to be faithless, the greater part of
her Cabinet hostile, people at large ut-
terly indifferent, or directly opposed to the Con-
stitution. The course which we ought to pur-
sue in such a state of things must be a momen-
tous question with our Ministers. To follow
up the policy of Mr. Canning, we must, in all
probability, resort to force. To abandon that
policy under present circumstances, would be to

* The late Mr. Secretary Windham used to observe, that
he did not know a more mischievous animal in the creation
than an active Justice of the Peace.