Star.
London, England, 1830-03-25 00:00:00

committed in the County of Me City of Exeter. When
the case for the prosecution was opened, the prisoner's
counsel objected to the indictment, on the ground that
the Act did not allow two places to be mentioned in it.
He, therefore, urged that the counsel for the prosecution
must make his election as to which of the counts he would
prdc' eed upon, for though the Act 38th George 111.
cap. 52, said that when there was uncertainty as to
the exact spot, the indictment might be laid in the
county ; yet the cities of London, Chester, Bristol,
and Exeter, wire excepted from the operation of such
a provision. The learned Judge said that, though
he was not before aware of the exception, the objection
was a valid one, and therefore his lordship directed the
prisoner's acquittal.—Now, upon these cases we have
only to observe, that involving, as they do, three distinct
degrees of criminality, they involve a still more obvious
necessity for an inquiry into the principle upon which
two men are for one offence consigned to death, and de-
prived of the advantage of a plea urged upon the
acknowledged informality and consequent illegality
of the indictment upon which they were originally
tried ; and two others—one charged with the crime of
MURDER, and the other arraigned for the capital of-
fence of sheep-stealing—are allowed the full benefit
of pleas urged upon similar grounds, and in consequence
of mere technical errors and informalities in the indict-.

meats preferred against them, are acquitted, and let loose
again upon society, emboldened by their deliverance from
all the penal consequences of their crimes, to perpetrate
fresh delinquencies, in utter contempt of the law, through
whose broken meshes the subtlety of their advocates had
extricated them. Assuredly such anomalies demand the
speedy intervention of the spirit of constitutional and ra-
tional reform.

That, in a season of national difficulty and depression,
the public burthen can only be sustained by a fair and
impartial distribution of its %eight ; and that the exi-
gencies of the State can alone be adequately supplied by
the united efforts and sacrifices of the people—justly
and equitably proportioned to their strength and to
their means—is a principle so self evident, and so
natural, that it were but a mockery of common sense
to enter into an elaborate discussion of its merits,
or to insist upon its applicability to the present condition
of the country. That—with the exception of the "fa-
voured fear"—there is not a class in the community, the
members of which are capable of making either efforts or
sacrifices, that would not cheerfully concur in the
adoption of such measures as prudence and as jus-
tice dictated for the relief of that condition, and
for the restitution of the country's prosperity, we
firmly believe ; but the more willingly we concede
this tribute to the disposition of the people at large, the
more bitterly must we deprecate any ungenerous and in-
vidious effort, to obtain such relief at the exclusive ex•
pense of the public creditor. Our objection to the pro-
ject of Government, with respect to the reduction of the
four per cents. does not rest so much upon the sacrifice
which the Fundholder is required to make, as upon
the fact that the exaction of any sacrifice should
be made in such a quarter, without at the same
time subjecting placemen, pensioners, and sinecurises,
to a similar test of patriotism and liberality. It is
curious, and at another time, or on any other sub-
ject, it might be amusing, to observe the amiable expe-
dients, and the sophistry by which the once popular
and liberal portion of the Press now labours in its
willing advocacy of every Ministerial measure:—The
City Correspondent (?) of the Times talks of " a
degree of confidence virtually expressed by the Mini-
stry in the state of the Country, which must, if borne
out by circumstances, induce a similar feeling over
the whole of the community." The " confidence vir-
tually expressed by the Ministry in the state of the
country,"—as that confidence has bean exemplified, and
expressed in their measures and in their speeches,—does
indeed require to be " borne out by circumstances," before
it can " induce a similar feeling over the whole of the

community." The Ministry which has confidence enough
to deny the existence of general and unprecedented dis-
tress, and to denounce all inquiry into the state of
the country, is worthy of such an advocate—and the
advocate is worthy of such a Ministry. We call the
serious attention of the public to a statement for which
we are indebted to an intelligent correspondent who pos-
sesses sources of information upon which we place the
firmest reliance ; and from the comparative view which
he has furnished of certain items of expenditure in
1792 and the present year, some notion may be formed of
the retrenchment and economy for which our financiers
claim so much credit.

We repeat once •more that the salaries of •Places

should all have been reduced, and the Pension List and
the Sinecure disbursements revised and curtailed, if not
altogether abolished—before the income of ono single
Fundholder was made an object of Ministerial speculation.

The Times of this morning has a very discursive, en-
lightened, liberal, and instructive essay upon the policy of
England and France, and the affairs of Europe ; com-
mencing with Lord ABERDEEN and Terceira, making
the circuit of Greece with Prince LEOPOLD, fighting
over the Turkish campaign with the magnanimous
NicttoLss, and concluding with an exposure of the
absurdity of the supposition—which the Times admits
" with all its absurdity is believed in France"—that Po-
Lao w.tc and his Cabinet are but the puppets of WEL-
LINGTON! We have not space to-day to profit by the
profundity of the learned Pundit's philosophy and poli-
tical science ; but we purpose on the morrow to make the
round of his circumgyration.

We omitted to state yesterday in the official- notice
from Government for the reduction of the four per cent.
Stock, that all holders of new four per cents. will receive
the dividends due on the fifth day of July, 1830.