The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-05 00:00:00

NEW POOR LAW.

• General JOHNSON moved the following returns :
—l. Return of all Workhouses and Buildings erected
or purchased or hired, and converted into Union
Workhouses, under the Poor Law Amendment Act,
with the costs of erecting, purchasing, hiring, and
converting the same into Workhouses, and of the seve-
ral principal sums borrowed for those purposes, and
from whom, and at what rate of interest, and of all
sums of money now due for principal and interest
upon such principal sums respectively, and of
the expenses attending the borrowing thereof.
2. Return of the amount of all sums annually levied
under the denomination of Poor-rate ; and, also, the
amount of the sums paid for the actual relief and main-
tenance of the poor in eaeh union, including and dis-
tinguishing in and out of door relief. 3. Return of the
amount of salaries, and the law expenses, and incidental
charges, in each union. 4. Return of the salaries, expenses,
and other charges for Corn missioners,with name of each As-
sistant Commissioner and officers belonging to the esta-
-1 blishment at Somerset House, and the travellingexpenses
incurred by each of them ; such and each of these re-
turns to commence from the passing of the Act, up to
the Ist day of January last, distinguishing each year.
5. Returns of the number of names of the Unions to
which no order has been sent for withholding out of
door relief to the able-bodied poor ; stating the date
of the formation, and the population of such Unions,
from the passing of the Act up to the Ist day of Ja-
nuary last.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE seconded the motion.
Mr. FOX MAULE would not object to the re-
turn, but would state it was an extremely intricate
one, and therefore, perhaps, might not be laid on the
table so soon as desirable, and he also thought as it
might give a partial view of the subject, the Poor
Law Commissioners ought to be permitted to make
any further returns they might think fit.
After a short conversation the Returns were agreed to.
General JOHNSON, in answer to an inquiry from
Mr. T. Duncombe, stated that the Assistant Poor-law
Commissioners at the Union of Boune, had been guilty
of putting nauseous drugs into the wine for the use of
the poor, in order that they might not drink it, and this
statement he was prepared to substantiate.
Sir R. FERGUSON obtained leave to bring in a
Bill to declare the right of joint tenants in cities,
towns, and boroughs in Ireland, to vote in the election
of Members to serve in Parliament.—Leave given.
Mr. R. STEUART moved that it be an instruction
to the Committee on the Caledonian Canal to inquire
into the state of the Crinan Canal.—Agreed to.
The other Orders of the Day were then disposed of,
and the House adjourned at Eleven o'clock.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

" Above all, establish a system of National Education
upon the sure foundation of religion and of morals, but
according to the sacred principle of civil and religions
liberty,"—Loan BROUGHAM.

SlR,—The permission in the Government plan of
National Education, that the children of Catholics
may read the Holy Scriptures in the DOUAY VERSION,
appears to have excited considerable alarm in the minds
of several Churchmen and Wesleyan Methodists.
With a view to allay the apprehensions of worthy men,
whose conscientious fears deserve the utmost respect,
I have transcribed, and shall be happy to see made
generally known, through the medium of your exten-
sively-circulated journal, the opinion entertained of the
Catholic version, by that sound Protestant divine and
distinguished ornament of the Christian world, the
great and good Dr. Chalmers.

In his examination before a Committee of the House
of Commons, as exhibited in a pamphlet which was
printed in 1832, and entitled " Evidence given by the
Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., and the Right Rev.
James Doyle, D.D., before a Select Committee of the
House of Commons on the state of Ireland," Dr.
Chalmers averred (page 63), that " in regard to the
authorised and Douay versions, the difference between
them is not so great as to make it a thing of practical
importance which of them should be used; though that
in point of decorum and good taste it were better that
the school Bible should be our authorised version, and
that the Catholic Priest would evince his wisdom and
liberality by making ao objection to it." The difference
being here expressly declared by a most competent
judge, whose prepossessions, as a Protestant clergy-
man, would naturally against the Catholic
version, to be not so great as to render it of
practical importance, but merely a point of de-
corum and good taste, it is unnecessary to add an-
other word respecting the version itself ; and I proceed
therefore to the objection against the NOTES which are
said to accompany the translation. From the above-
mentioned pamphlet it appears that the following ques-
tion was put to Dr. Doyle, (page 106.)—" You are
aware that in the Roman Catholic editions of the Scrip-
tures there were many .Notes, some of which were
considered to be objectionable and offensive to per-
sons of another persuasion ; in the late edition to which
you have referred, have any of those Notes, to which
objection vk as taken, been expunged ?" To this inquiry
the Catholic Bishop thus:replied :—" All the Notes to
which objections were at any time taken have been
expunged, not only from this last edition, but from seve-
ral previous editions, from the time when those Notes
were first brought under the observation of the Catholic
Bishops : they were expunged before I was a Bishop.
I heard of an unauthorized edition of the New Testa-
ment being published by some person, wherein some of
those Notes were preserved, and which caused a great
outcry ; but, however, we were no more responsible for
that edition than if it had been printed in Calcutta. The
discipline of our Church requires that no printer shall pub-
lish the Sacred Scriptures unless with the approbation of
the Ordinary of the place ; and no Ordinary;of ours in
Ireland [and, a fortiori, in England] has granted a licence
fer:the publication of the Scriptures with these objection-
able Notes for a long time previous to my being of that
body." As the Douay version to be used by Catholic
children—the permission is restricted to such—in the
Government schools would of course be the edition
which is authorized by the Catholic Prelates, nothing
offensive to Protestants would be allowed.

The other objections made to the proposed plan of
National,Education have been so ably refuted by Dr.
Kay in' his very temperate and excellent letter to
Mr. lii,mnedy, inserted in your paper last Monday, that
I respectfully refer such of your readers as may
wish to examine the question fully, to the Doctor's
reply. The instructive evidence given last year by Dr.
Kay, before the Committee of the House of Commons,
on the education of the poorer classes in England and
Wales, and his valuable communications on education
to the first volume of the Transactions of the Statistical
Society of London. evince that gentleman to be a com-
plete master of the subject ; and it augurs well for the
proposed plan of national education, that the Commis-
sioners have made so judicious a commencement, as to
appoint Dr. Kay Secretary to the Board.
I am, S:r, your most obedient Servant,
J. W. PIGG.

St. Simon's Academy, Norwich,
May 31, 1839.

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a Court was held for the dispatch of business.
The requisition for an Address to the Queen Dowager on
her safe arrival in England haring ben withdrawn, in
consequence of the letter of Lord Howe to Sir Peter
Laurie. Nothing was said upon the subject.