The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-20 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The request of " A Constant Reader" in Edinburgh shall be
attended to. In fact we had already determined on the
matter.

The publication of TIM SUN NEWSPAPIR commenced this day
at 55 minutes past Three o' Clock.

6-* 0. _

tuf),4N gTta,

LONDON,
MONDAY EVENING. FEBRUARY 20, 1837.

The Morning Post, in an article on the subject of
the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill, says, " The
question of this evening is eminently a practical one.
It is a question the right settlement of which must de-
pend upon a sound, impartial consideration of the cir-
cumstances of the case. Before this consideration has
been gone into, and in total ignorance of the facts
which the Opposition may bring forward to throw
light upon the question of what is expedient, and
what is practicable in this matter, the Ministers have
bound themselves to a particular course, and have gone
so far as to say, that if they fail in it, they will consi-
der it incumbent on them to resign the Government."
One would suppose from this passage that the question
of Irish Municipal Reform had never been mooted be-
fore ; that it was altogether a new question ; and had
never been made the subject of grave and . attentive
consideration by both Houses of Parliament, for no
inconsiderable portion of last session. Our Contem-
porary must have been sadly in want of a rational
cause of complaint against Government, when he
could gravely charge them with having " bound them-
selves to a particular course" on a subject which has
been already worn threadbare; which has been bandied
about, like a shuttlecock, from one side of the House
to the other ; which has been argued and re-argued in.
all its bearings, immediate and remote ; and on which
no new lights can be thrown, and nothing remains
to be said ! Such a charge might have come with
some little propriety from our Contemporary last
year, but this year it is preposterous and inapposite
to a degree. But not only is the Post angry with
Ministers for having made up their minds on the most
hacknied and exhausted question of the day, but he
is still more vexed with them for presuming to throw
out a hint about " resignation." We can understand
our Contemporary's soreness on this point. The rea-
son is obvious. He knows right well that the Con-
servative pear is not yet ripe ; that the Tories could
not by any possibility take up the dropped reins of
Government ; and that if Ministers were really to put
their threat into execution, the people would in-
stantly call upon them to resume office, and by so
doing, bring the unpopularity of the faction at
once to the_ test. This it is that makes our Contem-
porary take so much to heart Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
late indirect allusion to a resignation, in the event of
his being beaten on the Irish Municipal question ; and
truly we think his chagrin has justice in it, for we can
conceive nothing that could give the Tory leaders more
rational cause for alarm and tribulation, than their re-
ceiving just now a royal mandate to turn their horse:;
heads•towardS Brighton. But our Tory Contemporary
need not be disquieted on this score. His virtuous ap-
prehensions are utterly groundless, for the Ministers
will not resign, and consequently the Conservatives will
not be called on to succeed them. Even the indispen-
sable Sir ROBERT—as his party style him—may
safely venture -upon another journey to Rome, in the
full and firm conviction that no King's Messenger
will be dispatched, breathless and palpitating, after him
a second time.

We mentioned on Saturday that our Reporter had
been refused admission to the hole-and-cor»er Meet-
ing which was got up at the Freemason's Tavern
on that day by a few rabid Tories and ultra-high-
Churchmen, for the purpose of defeating the measure
about to he introduced into Parliament, for the relief
of the Dissenters from the compulsory support of a sys-
tein of religious worship of which they conscientiously
disapprove. We cannot say that-we felt at the time
any great degree of disappointment at the exclusion,
which we believe was not levelled at us in particu-
lar, but extended to all the Liberal press. Nor
arc we, now that we have seen the report of the
proceedings furnished by the accredited organs of
the clique, disposed to think that many of our rea-
ders have sustained an irreparable calamity, in con-
sequence of the course adopted by the managers
of this hocus-pocus concern. We have looked
over the speeches delivered by the persons pushed for-

ward on this occasion to deceive the public, and we can
honestly say, that we never, in all our lives, waded
through such a quantity of stupid trash. Well might
the people engaged in such a piece of humbug be
.ashamed to let the public know what they were about,
and how clumsily they performed their tricks.
Lord ASHLEY was in the Chair, and afforded suffi-
t Tent evidence that he is perfectly qualified to put on a
long face, and utter a sanctitnonious whine, when by
doing so he can serve a party 'impose. What must
any really religions person think of this noble Maw-
worm's declaration, that to abolish Church-rates would
be to " rob the poor man of his rights, and God of his
glory." May. we not ask this sprig of nobility for what
purpose it is that the State has assigned a revenue of
four or five millions a year to a particular order of men ?
Is this enormous amount of wealth lavished upon the
State Clergy, merely that they may take care of the
souls of the rich ? Are the poor to be excluded from
all spiritual benefit, unlevs the Dissenters will submit
to the payment of an additional sum under the name
of Church-rate ? This is the argument implied in
the first part of the Noble Lord's assertion. Thca as
to the " robbing GOD of his glory," we cannot help
saving that this is not the first time we have heard that
the glory of GOD could be promoted by compelling men
to violate their consciences. In the days of ignorance
and persecution, when the Dissenter from the national
faith was led to the stake for his heretical opinions, the
glory of GOD was always Are pretence. The praises
of the Almighty, the Te Deum laudamus, and the
cries of the murdered victim, ascended together to the
throne of peace and mercy. So it is, ris far as princi-
ple is concerned, at the present time. The persecutors
now-a-days dare not proceed to the extremity of com-
mitting a Church-rate unbeliever to the flames. Public
opinion has happily put a hook in their nose and a
bridle in their mouth ; but there are not wanting proofs
that it is the power, not the inclination, which is
defective. They do not hesitate to tear him from so-
ciety, from his family, from the light of day, and im-
mure him in a dungeon, where his life may be sacri-
ficed for " the glory of GOD."
We have no more room at present to devote to this
Meeting, but we may probably give the public a few
further specimens of the arguments (!) against the
abolition of Church-rates, brought forward at the
Freemason's Tavern.

Madrid Papers to the 12th, with letters from the
north of Spain to the 15th instant, have been received.
Their contents are of very little importance. The
Minister of the United States had presented a note to
the QUEEN'S Government, protesting against the trans-
fer of the island of Cuba to England as a security for
the payment of any loan contracted by Spain, and
setting forth that the United States would not suffer
England to take possession of the island. What effect
this note may have upon the plans of the Finance
Minister we know not. The Ministry agreed to send
three Commissioners to the army of the north, to
arrange all differences among the officers, and to report
upon the condition of the troops ; but when, on the
llth inst., a motion was made in the Cortes for leave
of absence for General SEOANE, COI. DEL VALLE,
and Senor LEIJAN, to proceed respectively to Bilboa,
Pampeluna, and Vittoria, on the Government mission,
the Chamber decided, by a majority of sixty-nine
votes to sixty-seven, that no leave should be granted,
and that Ministers had no right to confide secret mis-
sions to Deputies, without first obtaining the permis-
sion of the Cortes. Nevertheless, the Commissioners
proceeded on their mission—General SEOANE to Vit-
toria, where ALAIN remains with his division ; Co-
lonel del VALLE to Pampeluna, where General
SAARSFIELD is occupied in preparations for a grand
attack on the Carlists ; and Senor LEIJAN to Bilboa,
the head-quarters of General ESPA RTERO.
General QUIROGA is reported to have resigned the
Captain-Generalship of Arragon. General No-
GUERAS is named as his successor.

General EvA Ns addressed the following proclama•
Lion to the British and Spanish troops at San Se.
bastion on the 10th inst. :

" Soldiers—We are soon about to attack the troops whom
we conquered at Arlaban, Bilboa, and under the walls of
this town. Your courage and your discipline will secure
success to the arms of her Majesty Queen Isabella 11. You
behold at your head men of experience, who have been brought
up on the field of battle, and who will conduct you to the
path of glory. lam proud to be able to present to you a
young chief who has known only victory; in the midst of you
his destiny cannot be altered. Spaniards and Englishmen,
you have only one country, and that country never proved it-
self ungrateful ; your sufferings, your sacrifices, and your
courage will be rewarded. Despotism deluged in blued, is
making its last struggle to secure its empire over fertile
Iberia.
,Tyranny will recoil before you. Spain, who applauds
your exertions, through which she will be liberated, will soon
enter on a prosperous career under the sceptre of Isabella 11.
Soldiers, your mission is great, hut you will accomplish it,
and I am proud to be at your head, for I know that the day of
battle will be the proudest of your life. Long Evil the Queen
(Signed) <" DE LACY EVANS,
" General- Commandant.' "

General HARISPE has given permission to General
EVANS to remove the guns across the French terri-
tory, from Socoa to Irun, where they are to be directed
against the Carlists' batteries.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Friday and
Saturday hare Leen received. According to the
Mi-
nisterial- Papers the expedition against Constantine
has not only not been abandoned, -but the Telegraphic
despatch which we published on Saturday, purporting
to be addressed by the Minister of War to the Mili-
tary Commandant of the Fottress of Toulon, was. an
arrant forgery. General BERNARD addressed no such
order to Baron STOFFA T. The contradiction is thus-
given
.iven in the Moniteur of Saturday :
" The Minister of War had addressed no despatch of any
kind to the Military Commandant of Toulon. The'cirrly one
forwarded from the Ministry of War was dated .Feb. 11, and
was directed (not to the Commandant of Toulon,,but) to the
General (Dainremunt) commanding the Bth military division
at Marseilles. It directed that the vessels Egsrie and the
Marne should be employed in transporting soldiers to Oran.
With respect to Bona no conveyance of troops from France,
for that destination can take place until the sheds TiOW in pro-
cess of most active fabrication at Toulon (for prctecting from
the weather the materiel of the artillery, and of the en-
gineers, the provisions, and teinporaq hospitals) be ready,
transported to Bona, and absolutely -erected there. So far
front being suspended the preparations for the expedition
against Constantine are proceeding with the utmost vigour.
The materiel of the engineering department, and of the ar-
tillery, the tents or huts for the troops, the means of transport,
and the stores of all kinds will be ready for embarkation by
the end of this month. As respects the troops the "greatest
possible activity is observed in completing the effective force
of the corpsthat are to be sent from France to Africa, and
to provide them with the articles of equipment necessary for
the campaign."

The Ministerial evening official organ, the Charte,
of Friday, has the following -observations on the oc-
cupation of Algiers, and the dismissal of Marshal

THE SUN, I,ONI)O,'IVIONDAY, FEBRUA ItY 20, 1837.