The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-11 00:00:00

was, never dared to absolve his subjects from oaths
taken before his accession to the Throne of his
ancestors.

As we have much to say upon this subject we shall
frequently return to it. Meanwhile we shall look to
the proceedings of the Frankfort Diet and of the people
of Hanover with lively interest. We do not, how-
ever, attach any domestic British importance to the
settlement of this question ; inasmuch as we are mo-
rally certain that under no possible circumstances
would the people of England suffer the Imperial
diadem to be polluted by the touch of ERNEST of
CUMBERLAND. But the Legislature cannot, with-
out a gross dereliction of duty, and without compro-
mising the national honour, leave to chance or the
chapter of accidents the settlement of this affair. In
England we acknowledge no hereditary Royal right in
tyrants ; and if the New Parliament possess • only a
single spark of patriotism one of its first Acts will be
to set aside the claim of ERNEST Of CUMBERLAND,
and his descendants, to the Throne of Great Britain
and Ireland.

There will be found in another part of our Para
a communication from a Correspondent in Dublin, to
which we have devoted a larger space than we can
generally afford for the discussion of legal questions.
There is, however, a great public principle involved in
the case stated by our Correspondent, and under such
circumstances, we feel it our duty to submit it to the
public judgment at any inconvenience to ourselves.
Into the legal argument advanced in the paper to
which we refer, we are not competent to enter. There
are so many quibbles in law, that none but " profes-
sional" men, and very few of them, can say what is
and what is not law.

The intention of the Legislature in passing the
Church Temporalities Act, undoubtedly was to re-
lieve the Catholics from the payment of Church ccss,
a burden which pressed heavy upon them in a reli-
gious point of view. It is, therefore, a violation of
the spirit of this Act if a single Catholic is now com-
pelled to contribute to this ecclesiastical tax, even
were any parish specially excepted from its operation ;
but if no such exception has been made in the case of
St. George's, Dublin, the letter as well as the spirit of
the Statute would seem to have been infringed, by the
decision of which our Correspondent complains. If,

however, this decision should be found to be borne out
by the judgment of a superior Court, or by the concur-
rent opinion of eminent lawyers, the only resource will
be an application to Parliament for a Local Act, to

o that for the parish of St. George, which has been
done for the rest of Ireland.

Our Correspondent, n e think, is mistake❑ in quot-
ing the case of SCALES V. PICKERING. In that
case the 'point on which the East London Water-
works were defeated was, that the pathway in
which they had laid down their pipes was not
a public one, as the Act required it to be. They
had laid down other pipes in pathways of the same de-
scription, and after the decision in SCALES'S case,
they got a Supplementary Act to legalise what they
had done.

Among the many inquiries of great practical im-
portance which were suspended by the abrupt termi-
nation of the late Parliament, were those of the Com-
mittee which was sitting upon the state of the Metro-
politan Police. The minutes of evidence taken by
that Committee have been lately published ; and al-
though the Report is, it seems, deferred till next Ses-
sion, there is enough disclosed in the evidence already
taken, to show the necessity of considerable alterations
in the existing Police system. That the Metropolitan
Police has been a great improvement upon the old
local constables and watchmen is indisputable ; and
the excellent arrangements made on all public occa-
sions, (as for instance in the conduct of the late
Royal Procession), by the Central Commissioners, is
generally acknowledged. But it has been a great
mistake to allow a separate Police Establishment to the
City of London, which impedes the efficiency of the
Metropolitan Force, and facilitates crime in various
ways. This great metropolis ought to form one
united Police District, under the charge of one
directing authority. Nor is this the only defect
of the existing system. The police-offices, lock-up-
houses, and vans, in which prisoners are removed to
and from the gaols, are not only inconvenient, but the
want of separation, and indiscriminate mixture of all
sorts of persons, male and female, appear to be quite
indecent, and must be truly painful to any respectable
person whom accident may thrust into such society.
We refer, on this, point, to the evidence of one of the
Prison Inspectors, given in another column. Then,
as to the system of bail—the system must surely require
revision which consigns to gaol, for want of sureties, a
class of persons quite unable to find them, and that,
without any corrective discipline, and for very long
periods. We should hardly have believed, if it did

u -
not appear as an official statement of an Inspector
(Mr. Ward), that a man could be kept in gaol 22 years,
for want of ball to keep the peace towards his own
father. But we have not space to notice half the
defects of the existing laws, to which the attention of
the Committee was directed. The jurisdiction of the
Police Magistrates is very incomplete, and it is extra-
ordinary that, with all the activity of the New Police,
the flash-houses to which thieves resort, the low hells,
and other haunts of more than doubtful propriety, con
tinue to exist in London, as under the old regime.
There is plenty of work for the Committee in the ap-
proaching Session, and we trust that Mr. HA wEs, the
Member for Lambeth, who has exerted himself already
with considerable effect, will not let the subject sleep.

We present our readers to-day with a long and elo-
quent letter, possessing peculiar and considerable claims
to notice, upon the subject of Ireland's wrongs. It is
addressed to Lord CLONCURRY, and is from the pen
Of HENRY GRATTAN, Esq., one of the Members for
the County of Meath—a county which " ranks
amongst the first in its successful opposition to a
Tory aristocracy"---having obtained a majority of seven
hundred electors for the two Liberal Members, Mr.
O'CONNELL and Mr. GRATTAN. The latter Hon.
Member conveys to Lord CLoNCURRY his cordial
concurrence with his Lordship, in the propriety of
holding the proposed meeting of the Irish represen-
tatives, preparatory to the meeting of Parliament,
adding, that he should certainly attend, if illness in his
family did not call for his presence elsewhere. He
truly tells his Lordship that the condition of his
country is daily becoming better known to Continental
nations ; that her interests are becoming more and
more evident ; and that the death-day of misrule in
Ireland is at hand. " A silent but certain revolution,"
declares Mr. GRATTAN, " Will be effected ; and then
every man, whether Whig or Tory, will condemn the
system by which Ireland has been governed." Of the
truth of his assertion no doubt can be enter-
tained in the mind of any rational man. The
state of the Sister Isle needs only to be known
in order to be ameliorated, for good government
Is the necessary result of progressing knowledge.
We regret that the pressure upon our space as
well as time, to-day, precludes the practicability
of doing little more than simply directing attention to
the admirable letter of the Hon. and enlightened
Member for Meath. We quit the subject with xeluc
tance, but beg to assure our rcadeie that .Mr. GR AT
TAN'S patriotic letter will amply repay the most at-
tentive perusal, His portraiture of the Tories is to
less faithful than vivid—forcibly and truly does he say
of his party, " they made it a curse to be born au