The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-11 00:00:00

formed by Mr. Canning, an assurance that the
' existing system of Administration will be conti-
nued, and that no attempt will be made to de-
stroy the unity of system, by introducing into
the Cabinet men of illiberal principles.—Morn-
ing Chronicle.
Mr. Baron Vaughan, in charging the Jury at
the Stafford Assizes, in the case Caddy v. Bar-
low, observed, that " great allowances were to
be made for Magistrates, as they performed the
very arduous and important duties without any fee
or reward. He had no doubt Mr. Broughton
acted under the impression produced by Mr.
Barlow' s statement.' Of the faults with which
the people of this country are chargeable, that of
any thing like reluctance to make allowance for
any nonsense that may be palmed off on them,
is certainly not one. Mr. Baron M'Clelland, in
his charge to the Grand Jury of Monaghan, ob-
served, that " he hoped that the charges on their
calendar would not be attendedwith such results as
those on the calendar of Dundalk, where not less
than halfthe prisoners were discharged by proclama-
tion ; the evidence against them, on examina-
tion, having been found defective—so radically
defective, as not to support the indictments on
which they had been committed ; and thus the
gaol had been crowded, and those u; fortunate
wretches incarcerated, without the slightest
good result." Mr. Baron M'Clelland added,
that " a county prison might well be compared
to a pest-house, from which no one could be
supposed to come without bearing on his person
the contagion in which he had been a sharer ;"
and he strenuously recommended to Magistrates,
to investigate strictly the several cases that
came before them, and not to allow them-
selves to be so hurried away by the warmth
of the feelings of parties, as frequently to
take a common misdemeanour for a capi-
tal felony. Not make allowance ! The people
of this country are so stupidly apathetic, that we
hardly know what they would not make allow-
ance for. If out of a population of twelve mil-
lions of souls, two persons happen in the course
of a year to be bit by mad dogs, the unbitten
seem every where to vie with the bitten in furor,
and the very sight of a dog fills man, woman,
and c ith dismay. But they can hear such
a stat t as this of Mr. Baron M'Clelland, of
Justices of Peace filling the prisons with thou-
sands of persons in the year, against whom there
is not a shadow of evidence, • with the most
listless unconcern. In one of the divisions of
the Empire, supposing the proportion of
persons committed without evidence to be
on an average less than that at Dundalk—say
one-third instead of one-half—we should have
above five thousand innocent persons ruined, or in-
fected with the pest, as Mr. Baron M'Clelland
phrases it, in one year. So far from being un-
willing to make allowance for Justices of Peace,
they have no idea that it is possible there can be
a state of things in which prisons are not crowd-
ed with persons committed by them without evi-
dence. They cannot conceive the possibility of
a Magistracy acquainted with the first principles •
of jurisprudence, and sifting evidence previous to
committing their fellow-creatures to a prison.
They suppose stupidity and wrong-headednese
and ignorance, are qualities inseparably connect-
ed with the Magistracy. The prisons must be
filled, and Englishmen are supremely happy in
having the glorious distinction (a distinction
confined exclusively to themselves) of having
them filled for nothing. They have as much prison
room as all the rest of Europe besides, including
the spacious edifices of the Inquisition ; they are
taxed smartly for these prisons and their inmates,
but then they pay nothing for the Magistrates,
whose ingenious plan of committing without
evidence secures an abundant supply of inmates
to these edifices. Mr. Baron Vaughan accounted
for the proceeding of the Magistrate ; he had
acted under the impression of the statement of
one of the parties—that is, he acted partially.
We T.:riember a worthy Magistrate who used to
hear only one ;:nirty ; for he did not wish to be
confused by a seconc: Statement, when he under-
stood the case so well after the first. It was every
thing to have the first word with him. Mr. Baron
Vaughan would seem to think, that it is a fair
excuse for a Magistrate that the statement of one
of the parties rendered him deaf to that of the
other. The Magistrate would seem to have deemed
it a matter of much greater moment to protect his
own carpet than the accused; for on his cross-exa-
mination he stated, that in this instance the ac-
cused were left in the passage when the evidence
against them was taken, as " he does not like to
have dirty people come into his room." A gift
horse must not be looked in the mouth. Let
us be thankful that we have magistrates who,
though they are paid nothing for filling our pri-
sons, generously allow prisoners standing room
in the passages ,of their house. No man surely
would be so unreasonable as to demand more
than this indulgence. That she magistrate, merely
to allow the accused to hear the evidence of his
accuser, should sacrifice his carpet ! A distin-
auished foreigner now in London, observed some
time ago, that the English were slaves to their
carpets. If carpets are preferable to a man's own
li surely he is warranted in preferring his
caberprettso the liberty of another.—lbid.
Reports of changes resulting from the death
of Mr. Canning have been already numerous,
and of course contradictory. In the species of ,
interregaum which such an event creates, every
one assumes the Fight a re-modelling the Ad-
ministration according to his own fancy, and
each quidnunc plays at Ministers, as children
play at soldiers. The Stock Ex.change gentry
have been, as usual, most wise ; that is to say,
in that wisdom which knows nothing, and in-
vents every thing. They have had already three
Prime Ministers, spick and span new, of their
own creation, viz. the Duke of Portland, Lord
Lansdowne, and Lord Goderich ; and would,
with as much facility, we have no doubt, make a
dozen more, if by so doing they could put an
eighth per cent, into their own pockets by thus
influencing the Funds. Lord Goderich and
Mr. Sturges Bourne having been sent for to
Windsor—the West-end politicians soon divided
Mr. Canning's offices between these two per-
sonages,
srleaving only a Colonial Secretary to be
found. All these conjectures, however, are evi-
dently premature. The Whigs, however, it
is generally asserted, look rather dull. Whig
Scrip has evidently fallen in the market.
Lord Lansdowne's interview with the King was,
.. they admit, short, and therefore formal ; and the
sending for Lord Goderich so immediately,
looks as if he was commisioned to be the nego-
ciator for the return to office of some, at least, of
the old Administration. Mr. Sturges Bourne's
visit is conjectured to have been one rather of
compliment on the part of his Majesty towards
that Right Hon. Gentleman as the personal
friend pf Mr. Canning, and his executor and
guardian of his children. In the mean time, the
Lord-Chancellor has adjourned the Court for two
days—and, strange to say, a crowd of people as-
sembled round his carriage, at Lincoln s-Inn