0 
1826.] Letter on Affairs in general. 423 
‘that he would not have fired the gun. I dke the French taste the best; 
but it:is zot the best to get on with. The Paris paper which records this 
fact, announces it as an ‘ unpleasant incident.” y shcabactvehyany 
A meeting of the electors of Sudbury, at a public-house: in White- 
chapel; on Tuesday last, furnishes a pleasant commentary upon’ what 
is meant by a “triumphant reception” of a candidate, as applied* to 
the welcome’ at an election for a borough-town. This “ meeting” 
seems to have been called by some persons of Sudbury, who voted 
lately for Mr: Wilks, in order to abuse him for declining (after he was 
returned) to defray contest expenses ; and after proving, at-great length, 
that Mr. Wilks is a most fraudulent and censurable character,  per- 
fectly: unworthy to sit-in the House of Commons, the precious assem- 
bly resolves— nF 
« That the warm and affectionate manner of Mr. Wilks’s» reception 
by ‘the electors of Sudbury, and the triumphant manner. in: which “he 
was placed at the head of the poll,” ought to have induced him, &c.,:'to 
pay his charges in'a different manner. I hope he will sit, with all 
my soul, and never pay them sixpence. 
The Examiner, of the 17th September, contains the following edi- 
torial paragraph. 
“ At the Middlesex Sessions, last week, two fellows were convicted of a 
most indecent and brutal assault on a woman, the particulars of which are so 
obscene as‘ not to allow of mention. After the jury had returned ‘a verdict 
of guilty on the savages, the Chairman recoinmended an arrangement’ between 
the prosecutrix and defendants, observing, that it might induce the'court to 
pronounce a mitigated sentence; but in default of this arrangement, ‘it must 
passa severe one, however reluctantly, on persons in the situation of life-of ithe 
delinquents., The arrangement being very. properly declined by, the prose 
cutor, the Chairman passed sentence of one month’s imprisonment in the House; 
of Correction; this being the severe sentence he had contemplated for an. 
assault of singular brutality.” The court has to learn that justice does not 
acknowledge a particular tenderness for particular causes, though the Chairman 
of the Middlesex Sessions does. ‘ 
These persons in a. “ situation Va life” were two shop-boys at a 
ticket linen-draper’s in Holborn ; and one feels at a loss to, understand. 
how Mr. Const could have used the words imputed to him, or. why:he 
should be “ reluctant” to send two knaves to the House of Correction, 
who very richly deserved to be sent there. But the system of per- 
mitting compromises to take place between prosecutors and defendants, 
which has already been carried to a most improper length at the police 
offices, ought to be resisted through thick and thin, when we find it 
making its way into our courts of justice. A proposition like that of 
Mr. Const, changes the whole character of the tribunal at which he sits; 
and conyerts it from a court of criminal indictment, into—that which is 
provided elsewhere—a court of civil action for damages. ached 
The fact is, it is an insult to justice, and a mockery, the ,permit- 
ting any offender to choose whether he will pay in his purse or 
suffer in his person. The power of property is strong enough already, 
without any attempts of this covert and illegal character to extend it, 
It is trash to talk of the liberty of the subject, under any other régime, 
than that there should be the same law for the wealthiest man. 
in the state and for the common labourer. Our civil justice has 
become gross job enough; a poor man has little more than the choice 
to forfeit his right, or be ruined, ten times oyer, in the expense of a suit 
