The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-15 00:00:00

Now, however, that the mask has been withdrawn,
that disguise is no longer practicable, why should
we longer tolerate a position that must be used
against us in any possible combination or circum-
stances that may arise. _ _

As we have repeatedly pointed out, England
has nothing to fear from Austria. It requires but
the utterance of the " talismanic words" to find
her ample occupation in her own territories.
Hitherto we have restrained the action of the out-
raged nationalities. Why should we do so any longer?
Austria has most assuredly no claim upon our
consideration or good offices. She has delibe-
rately chosen her own course. She has exhibited
the same duplicity, insincerity, and selfishness for
which she has been so long notorious. She has
shown no title to the sympathies of the friends of
freedom or the lovers of justice. As we have re-
peatedly declared, she can. not be permitted to ob-
serve the disgraceful neutrality for which she is
so anxious. She will not act with the Allies, and
therefore she must perforce 'array herself alongside
a congenial Power, under the only standard
beneath which she is worthy to fight.
We are happy to find that our contemporary
the Morning Post, which is known to be well
informed respecting the opinions of the PALMER-
STON Cabinet, is taking a manly and straight.
forward view of the subject, such as we have per-
severingly advocated since the appearance of the
first cloud that darkened the political horizon
that indicated a storm in the East. We have
extracted an article from our contemporary ; and
if, as is most probable, the policy of Lord PAL-
MERSTON is therein embodied, he will regain the
place in public opinion which was greatly en-
dangered by concessions to Austria, and receive
the cordial and unanimous support of the entire
nation.

His popularity was imperilled by truckling, or
a supposed truckling, to Germanism. Let him
either repair the fault, or, still better, prove the
charge unfounded. Austria has suffered the
" cloven hoof "to be discovered. Let him treat
her as she is rather than as what she pretends
to be—and exhibit towards her, either just and
well-merited indignation,- or profound and con-
temptuous indifference. Lit him equally disre-
gard the whispered insinuations of the semi-
Austrian, Belgian, and all the mysterious
influences that are said to be brought to bear on our
own Government. In a word, let him prove him-
,self to be, as he once unquestionably was—" Not
the Minister of Russia, of Austria, or of Prussia,
`but the Minister of England." Let him show
that he still thinks that " England has no cousins
nor uncles." Let him do all these things, and ho
will achieve a popularity and receive a support
more honourable and more enduring than was
ever accorded to any of his predecessors in office

—which will cause his name to be mentioned with
respect through all future ages.

One of the brightest Episcopal ornaments of
the Church of England in the times of her
greatest trial wrote a book ou the " Liberty of
Prophesying," which at that time meant liberty of
preaching. Those who gild the Episcopacy of the
present day, however, prefer to record votes
against all preaching and praying by unconse-
crated men within unconsecrated walls. Lord
SHAFTESBURY has just obtained a majority of nc, for
the committal of a bill to repeal the Act 22, of
GEORGE 111., which prohibits more than 20 per-
sons meeting for worship in private houses, an
Act the existence of which was probably unknown
to the vast majority of our readers, and which
could not have been openly put in force without
exciting the indignant reprobation of all of them.
The most worldly of n would. resent such an un-
pardonable intrusion upon tho liberty and. tastes
of perhaps his next door neighbour. He would
declare it monstrous that he might himself with-
out danger of fine or imprisonment invite a hun-
dred people if his rooms would hold them to
profane music and dancing ; but, that if Mr.
TIMOTHY STANDFAST, differing from his Puseyite
pastor, chose to read Church prayers in his house,
and to hold forth to the edification of more than
twenty, who shared his aversion to altar
candles, intonation, and other mummeries,
Mr. TIMOTHY must incur the dangers of the first
Bishop of Ephesus. Religious men will, of
course, take higher ground, and insist with the
EArl of SHAFTESBURY on the obvious inconsistency
of fettering the zeal of any who wish to extend
in any way—" in season and. out of season"—a
religion professedly the most aggressive of all
which .ever entered the world. Christianity is
emphatically the religion which demands the sub-
mission of all, and demands it not at the poin'c of
the sword, not by rewards end penalties, but by
persuasion and argument only. No other organi-
sation of persons relying on such weapons—the
Lef)gue, for example—ever thought of interdicting
to any but ordained advocates the advocacy of their
cause.

The Bishops, however, Lord SHAFTESBURY was
told. on Tuesday night, unanimously objected to
his bill ! He of Oxford would accept it in no
case ; he of London would give way to pressure
from without, provided the Earl would introduce
a clause prohibiting any clergyman from officiating
in a private house without leave of the Bishop.
The sting is here. Some religious layman of
good natural ability might be far more acceptable
to his neighbours than the drowsy presentee of a
fat living and his pcor half-starved curate ; hun-
dreds of rectors and vicars, who gain their liv-
ings through no other qualification, earthly or
heavenly, than relationship or interest, might bc
liable to the same proof of their inutility ; a popu-
lar clergyman might also be invited occasionally
to interest a larger domestic congregation than the
public one in the parish church. The Bishops--
keen men they in their generation—foresee that
this really might originate for them an ecclesiasti-
cal Crimea. In the "temper of the times," which
the Right Reverend Fathers expressed such
dread of, it might reveal more than all
the efforts of Dissenters, the mal-administration of
the Church. Laymen would rise up like the Ad-
ministrative Reformers and affirm that they could
manage these things better than the officials, and
ecclesiastical LAYARDS and LINDSAYS would be
found to head them.

We beg respectfully to inform their Reverend
Lordships that a majority reduced to one, through
their votes and influence, will be regarded by the
public generally as the best proof of their selfish-
ness and intolerance. Administrative Reform
will reach the Church at last, do what they will ;
and protection for lazy or incompetent preachers
will follow the Corn Laws, the Navigation Laws,
and all other protective laws. Promotion by
merit, not by purchase of livings or by interested
presentation, will follow the demand for promo-
tion by merit in the civil and military services.
Why should reverend indolence or incapacity in
one branch of the public service be tolerated when
the same things are got rid of in the other
ranches 7 The bishops will find the laity of all
classes have got far ahead of their intolerant and
.1)
exclusive notions. The nation, with the excep-
tion of a few old maids and sexagenarian bigots,
will
e l not
gi o uks
be
nfroevriednegly suffer any clear infraction
now to
111, and such the antiquated Act
repealed
unquestionably is, Even