of style, and the digression on topics which a judge
is expected to The attack upon Lord ELLENBOROUGR'S acts having failed, Mr. avoid, but which cannot be expressly forbidden to him ; and the VERNON SMITH will give the carpers and canters another oppor- inquiry sought bore on the face of it an air of trifling, for it was to tunity by recurring to the foolish proclamation about the once ascertain what Lord ABINGER'S language was—to find out what famous, now notorious gates. If they must attack Lord Etta/t- wos the matter, not to substantiate a distinct charge. But the dis- BOROUGH, perhaps the best they can do is to stick to that, and cussion will be of use. The laboured plea of Lord ABINGER'S make the moat of it. Besides, it may spur Lord BROUGHAM, who counsel, the Attorney-General, wawa virtual censure of the client's has undertaken, in " another place," the feat of defending it ;
indiscretions ; and when Sir JAMES GRAHAM adopted Lord JOHN which would no doubt be amusing. Russell's view, that the motion could not be sustained, because .
it did not impute corruption, ignorance of law, or incapacity, and The certainly unfair attacks made on Mr. COBDEN in the House set Lord An/mimes professional life against the particular charge of Commons, last Friday, have attracted angry notice both in Lon.: and its passages " open to reprobation," he gave the censure distinct don and in the districts where he is best known and most esteemed, expression. Some attempt was made to show that other judges, Manchester and its neighbourhood. Addresses of support, resoLu- whom it was not proposed to censure, had also alluded to political tions, speeches, and newspaper-articles, have started forth in hili matters.; as Lord DENMAN, who, in sentencing some of the prisoners, vindication ; and he has had his own say at a numerous meeting at told them that they had been made the tools of others. But it the Crown and Anchor Tavern. For all his obvious faults, RICHARD was not the introductiottof political matters which was the real fault Coeneu is not a man to be assailed with impunity: and this time of Lord ABINGER : an insurrection, in which a political party have he will have more than the League and its hundred arms to support shared as such, is a political event to which a judge may properly him. The story is known to the reader. At a meeting in July *t, allude in treating of the crimes which arise from it ; and when Sir Mr. BAYLEY, a Dissenting minister of Sheffield, repeated with NICHOLAS TINDAL said, " We know nothing of Chartism here," of faint disapproval some random talk about assassinating Sir ROBERT course be did not mean that a Chartist conspiracy, if there were PEEL : at the time, the vile taste of the thing created no more than such a thing, could not be brought before the court, but that disgust and ridicule ; but more recently an assassin has killed Sir parties not accused could not be excluded for entertaining certain ROBERT'S private secretary, it is believed in mistake for the states- opinions. But Loid ABINGER did not confine himself to political man himself: Mr. COBDEN on Friday spoke emphatically of making events before the court, or to political events at all : he wandered the Premier "individually" or "personally and individually respon- into the criticism of political opinions, and did so in the spirit of a sible " for his measures and their consequences; and straight Sir partisan,—that is, of a man who did not absolutely defer to honest ROBERT PEEL took him up as pointing at assassination. The conviction, but who wished certain convictions—his own—to be supporters of each affect an ecstacy of horror,—COBDEN'S ene- entertained ; he undoubtedly went so far as to conjure up before mks, at the instigated crime ; Pest's, at his pretended " excite- the Jury the theoretical consequences of the contemned opinions, ment" and alarm. Had Mr. Connex mentioned Mr. BAYLEY'S imputed to the prisoners before them ; and if the Jury were not escapade with the same censure on Friday night that he did on biased against the prisoners by those speculative consequences of Wednesday, the scene might have been spared; for his real mean- assumed tenets, it must have been because they repelled from their ing would have been plainer. On the other hand, it must be re- minds what the judge had said, just as counsel use to tell them membered in judging of Sir ROBERT PEEL, that he had been visited to reject what they have heard " out of doors " lest it prejudice by the presence of the real calamity, in such a shape that the more the case. Such is not the position of a judge. The canvassing of generous feelings of manhood would encourage rather than check those points—of Lord ABINGER'S tone and gesture—teaches the the sense of horror : be it remembered, too, that Mr. COBDEN'S important lesson, that when a judge goes beyond his province, the speech set out with personalities ; he personally attacked the land- accents of his voice, the very movements of his hand, become owners, Mr. GEORGE BANKES by name ; he attacked the calumniators matters of jealous criticism ; and on the little more or less of sharp of the League, Lord BROUGHAM. most personally ; he attacked Minis- tone, of muscular action in the arm, may depend the degree of ters—Sir ROBERT PEEL "individually," or "individually and per- censure that is to drive him in shame from the judgment-seat or sonally " ; and though at this point the adjectives "individual" and
allow him to remain on snce. " personal " are meant to bear a narrower significance, the dis-
A new weapon against The Poor-law is a godsend to the agita- tinction is too nice to be on the instant obvious and unmistakeable. tors, especially in these days when'their vocation shares the general The personal attack on Mr. GEORGE BANKES was the first of a depression ; but that which Mr. WALTER has just discovered has series; one of Mr. COBDEN'S most earnest and effective speeches not availed him much. It was a confidential paper drawn up from lashed up the irritated feelings of the House ; and the final attack the report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, but not by themselves, on Sir ROBERT might very well be taken for the last of the series for the consideration of Lord GREY'S Cabinet ; and it appears to by any but cool and critical hearers, or those whose sympathy had have put in the most naked and rigorous form proposals to reduce carried them along with his meaning: the sustenance of paupers to the lowest possible amount. Mr. This occurrence illustrates a growing evil—the intensely personal II ALTER obtained a copy somehow, and now he moved a reso- character of many contests in Parliament ; of almost all. Mr. lotion denouncing it ; and the motion was the occasion for one COBDEN'S speech was saturated with that vitiating poison. If Sir of the common onslaughts against the Poor-law. It was assumed ROBERT PEEL-had been more closely following Mr. COBDEN'S ideas, that the detected paper was the real basis of the complete instead of watching the words to which he might commit himself, measure: Sir JAMES GRAHAM declared, that it had been re- the .abstract idea of concentrated responsibility, commensurate .lected. by Lord GREY'S Cabinet. Criticism upon it, therefore, with his great power, which all parties attach peculiarly to the II 53 futile as criticism upon a book refused by a publisher to one man in the present Ministry, would not have been mistaken
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Nears or THE WEEK- TOPICS Or THE DAY...-. whom it is offered by the writer. It would be hard if Ministers Political Summaries - 169 Considerations for Sir Robert Peel. 180 were answerable not only for what they do, but also for all which Mincer -Poor.law- Personation The Last of the Warlike 181 they refuse to do, supposing the doing blameworthy. Mr. WAL•
of Voters-Church of Scotland- Think of This. IR TER, withdrew his motion ; but he stuck to a general proposition
State of the Country-Thanks to Turnpike Trusts 183 which he had appended to it—that the Poor-law should be altered in Afghanistan-Miscellaneous.. 170 rac-rsvoa's LIBRARY- so as to be made "conformable to Christianity, sound policy, and The Court 175 Mr. O'Connell's Ireland-Masson's the ancient constitution of the realm." He found 58 Members to The Provinces 176 Publications Received 186 vote with him; but the whole conduct and tone of the debate de---,, Miscellaneous m Modern Pictures at the British 'natl. Ministers have renewed the assurance that the do not mean to Money Market 179 Births. Marriages, and Deaths 183 legislate for the settlement of the Nonintrusion question; though East India Shipping 179 Military Gazette 188 they will probably legalize the quoad sacra parishes of the Scottish Music 180 Prices Current . 189 Church, should the recent decision against the lawfulness of those
Condition of Euglansl 180 Advertisements 190 - 190 parishes, by the Court of Session, be affirmed by the House of
NEWS OF THE WEEK.Thanks have been claimed by the Government for Lord ELLEN-
BOROUGH, on account of his share in the military proceedings of the
Afghan war ; and, instead of receiving the threatened reprobation, THE Commons have not been absorbed in one engrossing subject, he has come out from the ordeal untouched. His conduct seems as they were last week; and the debates have consequently been throughout this part of his viceroyalty to have been proper and
