The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-02 00:00:00

we have done, with regard to the truth of the charges
generally current against the effects and consequences
of the system to which we had previously adverted. It
is quite plain that the King's Ministers must hare
serious misgivings as to the practical utility of the
board, or of the principles on which it is proceeding,
since Lord Melbourne comes forward with apparent
readiness to propose of his own accord this year what
he had doggedly refused twelve months ago, when
pressed to it by the Bishop of Exeter, namely, the in-
stitution of a Committee to inquire. Whatever the
report of this Committee may be, we trust the Noble
Lords composing it will not find themselves compelled
by the evidence laid before them to shut the avenues of
even imperfect or in some respects unwholesome know-
ledge, to the poor of Ireland ; for, after much consi-
deration, we are disposed to think, that, although the
priest may labour to mismodel and distort the instruc-
tion administered to Roman Catholic children, for the
sake of rendering it subservient to his own purposes,
gross and entire ignorance is, generally speaking,
worse than even ill-directed knowledge, because it
leaves the unhappy multitude no chance or prospect,
ever so remote, of emancipation from their spiritual
thraldom.—Times.

" Disguise thyself as thou wilt, Slavery, thou art a
bitter draught," said a distinguished writer ; and
though all respond to the sentiment, none but those
who have experienced the bitterness of bondage or
captivity can truly appreciate the intensity of the agony
inflicted by the loss of liberty. It is usual for Eng-
lishmen to revolt at the very mention of slavery :
how often have we seen the countenances of assembled
thousands flash with exultation at the iteration of that
line in our national melody, " Britons never shall be
slaves !" How often have we heard the proud boast
of " freeborn Briton ;" while the speaker, however
lowly and miserable he might be, erected his person,
which seemed to expand in the conscious dignity of at
least belonging to a nation of freemen ; yet, when we
look into the laws under which we live, how vain will
appear this exultation, how ridiculous this pride ! We
refer not now to the exclusion of the majority of the
people from the pale of the elective franchise, which
majority, by the rule, that every man governed by
laws in the enactment of which he has no voice, is a
slavehave not even the semblance of freedom ; nor
do we refer to the various other means and ways con-
tingent on this exclusion by which the liberty, of the
British people is curtailed of its just proportions ; but
as Sterne, when lie wished to depict the horrors of
captivity, pourtrayed an individual prisoner, and made
the encaged starling sing, " I cannot get out, I can-
not get out ;" in humble imitation of his example, we
shall take an individual instance of the laws which ex-
clude the people of this realm from the enjoyment of
their liberty, and we shall select that of imprisonment
for debt, as well worthy of this infamous distinction.
It will furnish a subject of astonishment to posterity to
learn that a people who voluntarily paid twenty millions
sterling for the abolition of slavery in their Colonies,
were themselves individually liable to be incarcerated
by any person to whom they might owe, or who might
swear that they owed to him, a few pounds. Yet
such is the fact. We enact laws against a traffic in
human beings in other countries, and we tolerate it in
our own. The statute law of Great Britain gives one
man the power of peremptorily depriving another of
his liberty, in consideration of a debt legitimately or
illegitimately contracted, which debt, when so en-
forced, can be regarded in no other li!;lit than as the
purchase-money of such debtor's liberty. Nor is this
atrocious enactment a protection to the creditor ; on
the contrary, the. fraudulent debtor may submit to im-
prisonment, and, retaining his property, live in splen-
dour—converting his prison into a palace, and, as is
done every day, scoli'at his duped creditor, whose•pro-
perty, perhaps, at the very moment is supplying the
luxuries of a saturnalia. Chi the other Irind, the
vinaictiye creditor way incarcerate a well-meaning, but
unfortunate debtor, tear him from his family, deprive
him of the means of exertion, extinguish his hopes,
and make, as has occurred in numberless instances, the
prison the pathway to his grave. So that fraud on the
one hand, and vengeance on the other, and not the
security of credit, appear to be the objects intended
by the existing law. But for the House of Lords this
law would have been abolished two years since, so
that, with its other evil deeds, that branch of the
Senate is responsible for all the misery which, during
that time, has been inflicted by the operation of
imprisonment for debt—an operation which, as may
be seen by a parivraph in another part of our journal,
is, in one prison in Dublin, attended with thirty-four
deaths annually ! .It is notorious to all acquainted
with the variety of ways in which property may be
screened from creditors while the person is incarcerated,
that the present law is almost totally ineffective for the
protection of credit ; but even if it were not so, is a
man's liberty, and not alone his liberty, but his life,
to be yielded up in liquidation of his " bond." 'When
we see Shylock whetting his knife, preparing to cut
the pound of flesh from his victim's heart, the soul
shrinks with horror ; but how many, by the law of
imprisonment for debt, have endured a mutilation even
worse than this, and experienced the protracted tor-
ture of having every fibre of the heart stretched upon
the rack, and successively. snapped—every connection
broken, and at last met death, not as an aggravation
of, but as a release from their suffering ! Let the
fraudulent debtor be imprisoned, as is provided for in
the proposed Bill, but let not misfortune or poverty
be punished as a crime. On going into Committee on
this Bill last night, the House of Commons was in-
flicted with a silly speech from Mr. Richards, oppo-
sing its progress, which we are gratified to perceive met
with—the reception it deserved—contemptuous si-
lence. The lion. Member, however, divided the
House, but had the gratification of standing alone in
his glory, not a single Member dividing with him, so
that the division stood thus—

For the Committee.... 95
Against OO
Teller—Mr. Richards.

Who after this will say that Knaresborough should
not be proud of the distinguished and conspicuous po-
sition in which her Representative has placed her-
self ?—Morning Advertiser.
If it be true, as the correspondent of a Morning
Paper states, that the brave and enterprising Gomez
has been shot by order of Don Carlos, no language
can be strong enough to reprobate the conduct of that
Prince. We doubt the fact, not only because it ap-
pears to be improbable in itself, but because our intel-
ligent correspondent in Guipuzcoa has said nothing
about it. If, indeed, it should unhappily be true,
Gomez must have fallen a victim to the jealousy of
some of the military chiefs in favour with Don Carlos,
whose miserable envy was excited by his brilliant
achievements, which, if properly seconded by Villareal,
by marching upon Madrid, instead of stupidly laying
siege to Bilboa, and there allowing himself to be sur-
prised and routed by a thrice-beaten army, it is probable
that long before this the Carlist standard would have
floated over the capital. The Standard, in commenting
upon this reported assassination, says, and says truly,
"That it was the murderof Porlier, by Ferdinand, which
led to all the dangers and distractions of that miserable
Prince's reign. The crimes of the humble sometimes
escape punishment in this world ; but the crimes of
men exalted in station rarely, if ever, pass without even
a temporal vindication. Providence is too merciful to
mankind to allow a long apparent impunity to conspi-
cuous wickedness." But greater is the crime of Don
Carlos if Gomez has perished as described than that of
Ferdinand. We never liked the favour which Moreno
appears to receive at head-quarters--it boded no good
to the cause of Don Carlos. The " monster Mina"
and the savage Rodil were not more unfortunate in-
struments of barbarous warfare in the hands of the
Queen's party ; but they exterminated only their ene-
mies, and the connections of their enemies, not their
friends. We ask, is this a cause in which English-
men should be induced to shed their blood on either
side ? Let Lord Palmerston answer that.—Herald.
'F he discussion in the House of Lords on Lord
Melbourne's motion for the appointment of a Select
Committee to inquire into the progress of the new plan
of education in Ireland, may be referred to with much
gratification ; but the gratification in this instance, as
in all other sublunary enjoyments, is not without alloy.
We cannot but rejoice, in common with the entire
Protestant community of the three kingdoms, that
the zeal, perseverance, and talent with which the
Bishop of Exeter has directed public attention to the
Government system of education is Ireland, has at

length had the effect of compelling the First Minister
of the Crown to move for the appointment of a Select
Committee of the House of Lords to inquire into and
report upon the subject. It will be recollected that
the Right Reverend Prelate moved fol a similar Com-
mittee in a former session, and that Government re-
sisted the motion. That motion was withdrawn, al-
though there is little doubt that, if it had been per-
sisted in, it would then have been carried by a large
majority, because it was felt that, to adopt such a mo-
tion, in opposition to the Government, would have pre-
judiced the question to be submitted to the Committee,
and would have amounted in effect to a premature con-
demnation of the system. The opinions maintained
by the Bishop of Exeter have, however, steadily
wrought their way, and have by degrees acquired so
much strength, that Government no longer think it
wise or safe to withhold the opportunity of a full in-
quiry. Much is gained for the cause of truth when the '
party which has hitherto resisted inquiry are compelled
to acknowledge the necessity of submitting to it ; and
for this gain to the cause of truth it is scarcely too
much to say that the country is indebted exclusively to
the Bishop of Exeter, whom we accordingly find the
object of bitter hatred, and rancorous fury, and malig-
nant aspersion to all the enemies—high and low, eccle-
siastical, legal, and lay—of inquiry and of truth. But,
as we have already said, there is no gratification with-
out alloy in this world, and it is certainly painful, in
retracing the discussion of Tuesday night in the House
of Lords, to find so much of what is positively irre-
concilable in the statements of facts put forth by per-
sons of the class of Bishops and Judges. - Into these
details we will not enter now. Such discrepancies as
they present, vouched on either side as they are by the
highest authorities, or by persons upon whose testi-
mony the highest authorities have thought it pru-
dent to rely, prove the necessity of a full and searching
inquiry into the subject ; and engendered very natural
suspicion that those who have only consented ter such
an inquiry at the eleventh hour, and under the corns
pulsion of a moral necessity, which has gradually
grown too strong to be any longer resisted, do not
anticipate, whatever air of confidence they may think
it politic to assume, that the result of the investigation
will be triumphant or creditable to them, or to the
cause they have espoused. There are, however, one
or two collateral topics connected with this discussion
upon which, without in any manner prejudging the
question submitted to the Committee, we may be per-
mitted to remark. It was contended !by the Ministe-
rial party in the House of Lords that the Irish Edu-
cation Csmmissioners had clone rightly in presenting a
report, a large part of which consisted of a direct and
undisguised attempt to refute a speech delivered by
the Bishop of Exeter in the House of Lords, and sub-
sequently published in the form of a pamphlet.. We
at once admit in favour of the Commissioners that
they had an apology for swerving in this par-
ticular from the usual practice. Their opponent
was one of extraordinary power. He had made an
impression upon the public mind which it must re-
quire extraordinary efforts to efface. Neither in
the House of Lords nor through the press had any
adequate reply been yet offered to his statements and
observations, although none of the usual opportunities
of reply had been wanting. The Bishop of Exeter
was, indeed, an antagonist to justify, if any antagonist
could justify, a departure from the ordinary modes of
defence. If the Commissioners so far flattered them:
selves as to imagine that they could give a satisfactory
answer to the statements and observations of the Right
Reverend Prelate the temptation was, no doubt, ex-
ceedingly strong to present that answer to-the public
in the most conspicuous and authentic form, and to
provide for its printing and extensive circulation at the
public expense. If these reasons would he good in
airy case they must unquestionably be good in a case in
which the controversy was to be maintained against
such an antagonist as the Bishop of Exeter. But we
insist that in no case could these reasons be good.
Why should any body of Commissioners be dissatis-
fied with such reply as their advocates in Parlia-
ment can make to their Parliamentary accusers, or
their pamphleteer champions to their pamphleteer
assailants ? The country pays dearly enough for
the printing and circulation of the reports of its
innumerable Commissioners. But if every Board of
Commissioners, when it feels itself powerfully at-
tacked, and apprehends I hat it -has been feebly de-
fended, is to become a board of controversy, and to
print and circulate its polemics at the national ex-
pense, it is evident that, costly and noisome as too
many of those Boards now are, they will speedily be-
come more expensive and revolting nuisances than
ever. This is what we chiefly dread in the example of
the Irish Education Commissioners. With the homage
which they have paid by the adoption of so new and
irregular a mode of defence, to the eloquence, the
authority, and the power of their vigorous, accom-
plished, and conscientious opponent, we cannot be ex-
pected to quarrel. It shows how effectually they had
been stricken, and how deeply they had felt the blows.
And this consciousness would have been a redeeming
quality, had it led to honest self-correction, instead of
an unfair, disingenuous, and abortive attempt at self-
defence. Another topic was lugged into the discus-
sion by Lord Plunket—for the purpose, apparently,
of making a point, and not, as it appears to us, a very
clear or a very good one—which had little, if anything,
to do with the subject before the House. His Lord-
ship cast the full weight of his censure, whatever that
may be, upon the Bishop of Exeter, for having spoken,
as it deserves, of the manner in which many of the
Roman Catholic Members of Parliament observe the
oath which they are required to take before they enter
upon the duty of legislation. Lord Plunket will have
it that the charge of perjury against Legislators who
swear not to do a particular thing, and immediately set
about doing it with all imaginable diligence and zeal,
is false and indecent, not because lie has any construc-
tion to give to the oath which can reconcile it to the
conduct of those who take it, but because those who
take the oath and break it, generally vote with the
majority of the House of Commons ; and to charge
the former with perjury is to charge the latter, who
accept the aid of their votes, with subornation of per-
jury. This is the sound and wise morality of the Lord
Chancellor of Ireland—this the principle upon which
he charges a Prelate of the Church of England with
audacity and falsehood. We hope it will be long,
very long, before Lord Plunket will find a Bishop of
the Church of England to whom, in conformity with
his own Liberal principles, he could ascribe the quali-
ties of modesty and truth. To " prophecy smooth
things" to the possessors of power—to be obsequious
and devoted to the existing majority, whateVer may be
its composition or its conduct—to believe that all who
contribute to its strength are immaculate and infallible,
suits well the supple and convenient conscience of
Lord Plunket ; but we believe the Protestant people
of the three kingdoms will concur with us in thinking
that it is not unseemly in the heads of the Church to
be guided in their estimate of the conduct of mankind
by principles somewhat lessflexible and accommodating.
What has the Bishop of Exeter—what has any other
Bishop—what has even any honest man—to do with
I Lord Plunket's ingenious induction that to charge the
Roman Catholic Members of Parliament with per-
jury is to charge the majority of which they form
a part with subornation ? Are the guardians of a
nation's faith and morals to call falsehood truth, and
perjury religion, in deference to the majority, for
whose character Lord Plunket manifests so disinterested
a jealousy ? Are all the feelings of honour and good
faith among mankind to be stifled because the votes of
the O'Connell tail are convenient and advantageous to
the Administration of the day ? The Earl of Fingal
came in aid of Lord Plunket, but with scarcely better
success than his leader, upon the question of the Ro-
man Catholic oath. This intelligent Peer thinks he
may, without imputation, disregard the oath he has
taken, not to employ his Parliamentary influence or
authority to the injury of the Church of England, be-
cause he refused, some years ago, publicly to renounce
his religion, for the sake of obtaining a seat in Parlia-
ment. If this satisfies Lord Fingal himself we must
frankly tell him that it will not satisfy the Protestants
of Great Britain. They could imagine the possibility,
even although they did not daily behold the proofs of
it, that among men who would be ashamed to re-
nounce publicly their religion for the sake of a tem-
poral advantage, there may be some who do not re-
gard an oath generally as a very binding obligation.—
Morning Poet.