The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOCR-i•IALS.

Two fresh repctts to the Houle Secretary from
Iloacds of Guardians for Poor-law Unions 'sill be
found in another column—from and
Depwade Uniop, both in Norfolk. It will be seen
that these, like all the other documents of the same
description, bear testimony to the good effects of ,the
new Poor-I.lw in the unproved habits of the working
classes. In no part of the kingdom had a few scars

wrought such extensive changes in the character of the
peasantry as in Norfolk and Suffolk. From being the
best and most orderly labourers of England, in many
places they had become exceedingly depraved. Not
a few of our readers will remember the account of the
Norfolk peasantry given a year or two ago b; Mr.
Weviaml, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions : most
parishes abounding with able-bodied paupers, who
carried their allowances to the beer-shops, whence they
sallied to commit depredations and outrages. The re-
port of the Docking Unieen states, that, as regards
the poor themselves, no better proof can he furnished
of their moral improvement than that the keepers of
beer-shops complain of loss of trade on the one hand,
and tradesmen find themselves better paid on the
other." Thii ty-nine per cent. of the expenditure has
been ahead,: reduced, and further reductions are anti-
cipated. In Depwade Union the improvement of the
habits of the working classes is also partienlaily dwelt
on.—Morning chronicle.
• Vague and jesuitical as were many parts of the
Tamworth Barmaet's speech at the Glasgow banquet,
there were others in which he was sufficiently explicit.
His anti-peerage-reform principles were stated with a
clearness which leaves no room for doubt as to their
nature. 'Not leSs decided were the terms he employed
in denouncing the voluntary church principle. The
praise, however, which we bestow on his language, we
are constrained to withhold from his logic. Sophistical
as the Right lion. Baronet can at any time be when it
suits his purpose, he was on this occasion pre-cmi-
nently prodigal of his fallacies. Sir Robert assumes
that unless religion be forced on a people through
means of an establishment, there will be no religion
at all among them. On what does he ground his
position—on philosophy or history, or on both ? Both
will equally fail him. The man must have paid but
little attention to the philosophy of the human mind,
who has not arrived at the conclusion, that religion
cannot be forced on a people at all. It is true that by
a compulsory process men may be induced to profess
religion ; but there is all the difference in the world
between professing religion and being really religious.
Force never yet operated conviction on the mind—it
never will—all it can do is to make men hypocrites.
But where was the Right Hon. Gentleman's historical
knowledge when he asserted that Christianity could
not exisiwithout the aid of an establishment It
must either have been asleep or on a journey. What
came of Christianity before it was made an established
religion ? How did it contrive to exist, and not only
to exist, but rapidly to extend itself during the first
three centuries ? And how happens it to exist and
to flourish in so extraordinary a manner, at the present
moment in America ? Would Sir Robert wish to
have one or two more facts to prove that the
Christian religion can both support and extend
itself without the aid of the State ? What will
he say to a reference to the South Sea Islands ?
Have not heathenism and idolatry, in all their most
revolting forms, been overthrown, and Christianity
erected on their ruin, within the last quarter of a cen-
tury, in those islands, by the unaided efforts of a few
pious and zealous missionaries ? Let Sir Robert
answer this argument if he can. But it is not in the
South Sea Islands alone that we have of late witnessed
the triumphs of the Christian religion detached from
tl t Sate. We have seen those triumphs in every
quarter and almost in every clime of the world: But
why wander to distant countries for arguments where-
with to demolish the false positions and specious so-
phistries of the Lord Rector of Glasgow ? We have
arguments without number, and of the most unan-`
swerahle had, in our own country. Whether, let
us ask, has the Church in either country, or the
Dissenters, done most, fur the spread of religion in
the United Kingdom ? The Dissenters, beyond all
question, and beyond all comparison. Was it not
the non-conformists that gave the great impulse to
religion in the seventeenth century ? Was it not
Wesley and Whitfield that spread Christianity in
its true spirit and power, through the length and
breadth of the land, nearly one hundred years since ?
Were not the ministers of the Establishment
morally asleep at that time ? Was it not notorious
that nothing more than the mere form of religion then
existed in this country ? And who, let us ask, are
doing the most for the extension of religion at this
moment ? Can it be denied that it is the Dissenters ?
Are not all our Bible and Missionary Societies the
fruits of Dissenting piety and zeal ? Wherever such
institutions exist in the Church, they only have their
origin in a spirit of rivalry. towards Dissenters. Sir
Robert Peel says that bad men will never seek religion
for themselves, and hence it must be forced on them
through the medium of an establishment. The pre-
mises are true : the conclusion is altogether unjust. It
is of the very essence of Christianity to diffuse abroad
its blessings. Pious men will always feel for those
who do not feel for themselves ; and they will leave no
effort untried to communicate the religion which has
blessed themselves to all around them. Are not all
the institutions to which we have referred so many un-
answerable proofs of this ? And do we not daily and
hourly see Dissenters not only supporting their own
ministers, but raisin' large funds to send the Gospel
to others ?—Morning Advertiser.
It is not with feelings of regret that we hear of the
French Ministry having been beaten on the amend-
ment to the Address relative to Poland. We may
remind our readers that the amendment was moved by
Odillon Barrot, and was in the following terms :
" The repose of Europe will never he more forcibly
guaranteed than when it shall be founded on respect for
rights consecrated by treaties ; and among those rights
France will ever place in the first rank those of the ancient
Polish nationality.' _

Though we-have the opposite feeling to regret at
finding such an amendment carried in the French
Chamber of Deputies—a Chamber possessing no very
extraordinary amount of public spirit or virtue—we

confess it is not with any feeling of national pride we
contrast the conduct of the representative assembly of
France on this point with that of our own House of
Commons. The French Government did not more com-
pletely betray Poland—did not more servilely truckle
to Russia—did not more disgracefully creep out of the
obligations of the Treaty of Vienna, which guaranteed
the nationality of Poland, than our own ; yet the
virtuous Liberals—the pretended friends of Poland in
that assembly—the men who, when the Polish
struggle was over, and the money of the Russo-Dutch
loan job voted into the coffers of Nicholas, went to
public meetings and loudly denounced the tyrannical
acts of the Autocrat, while they boasted of their
sympathy with the persecuted Poles—those virtuous
Liberals, we say, never dared to put upon the Jour-
nals of the House a recorded disapprobation of the
policy of the Whig Government in relation to Po-
land, as strong as that moved and carried by Odillon
Barrot in the French Chamber, or any vote of disap-
probation whatever. One or two motions were made,
indeed, which had no result, becalm:, with the mass of
the Reformers servility to the Whigs overshadowed
all sympathy for Po!and. We confess we feel shame
at seeing what has taken place upon this sub in
the French Chamber, when we contrast it with
the conduct of our own House of Commons. Great
is the rebuke of Ozlillon Barrot's amendment

to the Go7crnmen:, whose Foreign Minister, up-
on hearing of the capture of the Polish capital,
% exclaimed " Order reigns at Warsaw." As to the
other affair of the Swiss question and the spy Conseil,
which has occupied the French Chamber, it shows the
immorality of the French Government in the strongest
possible light, for, after the confession of M. Gasparin
no man can doubt that Conseil was the hired emissary

of that Government, employed to foment plots in
Switzerland, with the view of furnishing the French
linistry with a pretext for demanding the banishment
of the Polish and other political refugees, to propi-
tiate the favour of the Northern Powers. Such po-
licy is most indefensibly—it is in the worst style of
ti-e Machiavellian school. It deeply savours of the
" mystery of iniquity," and can never come to good.

It gives us sincere regret to observe a most re-
spectable Evening Conservative Journal attempt to
palliate this policy on the part of the French Go-
vernment, though, by means of the simulated se-
dition of their own spy, that Government was fur-
nished with the pretext for demanding the expul-
sion of the refugees whom he had inveigled into his
pseudo-plots against other States. The demand of
the French Government was as insolently made as the
pretext for it had been corruptly obtained. NI-Vito
does not recollect the threatening letter of M. Thiers,
in every way worthy of the Autocrat of Russia !
Who does not also recollect the shuffling attempt at
denvit, the authenticity of that letter, when it called
forth a burst of indignant feeling in France ? What
matters it to the morality of the question, whether
Conseil, like many other spies, became a double
traitor ? The admission of M. Gasparin has placed
it beyond all doubt, that he was known to be a traitor
when sent to Switzerland, and that he was sent there
on thai very account. If Switzerland is to be op-
pressed with impunity, and every dishonest advantage
taken of her, because she is a small nation, the same
principle will apply to Hol:and. We have advocated the
cause of Holland, as we now do that of Switzerland,
against thetyrannical aggression of more pcwer ful nations.
Indeed, t'ne comparative smallness of those nations, when
taken in connection with what they have achieved in
working out their own independence, the one against
Spain, then a mighty Power, and France—the other
against Burgundy and Austria, 'entitles them to a
larger share of the admiration of a people who, like
the English, admire manly courage, and the generous
intrepidity which contests a good cause against any
odds. We reprobated the infamous Anglo-Gallic con-
vention against Holland, and the " amicable slaughter"
of the Dutch King's subjects at Antwerp, in no miti-
gated terms, when the Whig Government was much
more popular and powerful than it • will ever be again.
Not less indignation and disgust do we feel at the in-
troduction of the demoralising system of Gallic espi-
onnaze into Switzerland, for the purpose of crushing,
by such corrupt and criminal instrumentality, its na-
tional independence. No political event that has oc-
curred for a long time gave us more satisfaction than
the fall of M. Thiers, so soon after the publication of
his insolent letter to the Swiss Directory. Let him
settle the precise amount of responsibility with his
late Royal master as he can. The treatment which
Switzerland has received, by means of the spy-system,
reflects no credit upon either.--. Morning Herald.

APPREHENSION OF THE DENVER

MURDERERS.

The peaceable town of Doncaster has been greatly agi-
tated during the last few days, owing to the apprehension of
the strongly-suspected murderers of Hannah Manfield, the
Denver fortune-teller. The facts of this horrible affair are
already before the public, and we now give an outline of the
apprehension of the men who are considered to be the
perpetrators. It will be recollected that three navigators
were seen near the unfortunate woman's house, on the even-
ing preceding the murder, and the following morning, so
early as three o'clock, were also met close to the spot.
These men, however, at that time eluded detection, and
having traversed the country, taking the direction of Stam-
ford, reached Doncaster on Thursday evening last, and
took up their quarters at a notorious house, called the
Bird-in-Hand, St. Sepulchre Gate, in that town. The
Sessions for the West Riding were going on at the
time, and they had the effrontery to attend the Court,
in the Town-hall, nearly the whole of Friday. The fol-
lowing morning the Express coach arrived, and with it Mr.
T. V. Wright, one of the principal officers of the town of
Lynn, who lost no time in procuring the assistance of Mr.
Tymms, chief officer, and Wheater, of the day police, who,
conjointly, traced the navigators, and found them as above
described at the Bird-in-Hand. Five pounds of beef-
steaks were cooking for them, at eleven o'clock in the morn-
ing, and one of them was playing a match at " puff and
dart." The three officers alluded to, with firmness and
promptitude, grappled and handcuffed their powerful pri-
soners in a few seconds, who were led, trembling, to the
gaol. On searching their persons, a bar of silver was
found upon one, evidently melted from spoons, and on the
others three sovereigns and some silver. They were
strongly ironed, hands and feet, and conveyed on Sunday,
at one o'clock, by the Express coach, from the Rein Deer,
to Newark, and from thence to Lynn. They gave their
name, John Smith, 25; John Vernam, 25, and George
Timms, 22. On mounting the coach, Vernam pulled off
his hat and huzzaed, which struck terror into the minds of
hundreds of spectators who witnessed their departure.
The greatest credit is due to Mr. Wright for his exer-
tions during the past fortnight, who has traced sufficiently,
not only the persons of the prisoners, but their undoubted
guilt. They were all dressed in new blue smocks and new
velveteen jackets, with large pearl buttons ; and he has dis-
covered that their old ones were burnt on the road.