The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-03 00:00:00

they terminate with hislife, and loyalty is preserved for his
successor. But no obedience is due to fellow-subjects
their bad government is intolerably odious and heavy, and
their best attempts at legislation are received with suspicion
and dislike. A people so governed is degraded in its own
regard ; it beholds itself reduced to the condition of a con-
quered nation ; it is disorganized by imperfect and detested
laws. The inhabitants become uneasy and discontented ;
they have no hope in the future, for the system which op-
presses them does not depend on a single life; and they
become open to the intrigues of some rival or ambitious
neighbour.
It is not necessary to look back upon the steps by
which the British Parliament has usurped the legitimate
powers of the Assembly of Jamaica: the monstrous pre-
texts which have accompanied her usurpation, and the
falsehoods and slanders which have been advanced to jus-
tify it, it would be useless to complain of or to controvert.
When lawgivers consent to sit in judgment on an Assem-
bly, in no respect their inferior, except in extent and mag-
nitude of power ; when they condemn, and presume to
punish, upon charges kept secret from the. accused, they
cannot be expected to listen to a defence which would con-
vict them, either of imbecility and cowardice, if they were
urged to the injustice by popular clamour, or of fraud and
malice, and a thirst for omnipotent authority, if the injus-
tice was the result of deliberation and design.

Some passages follow which contain jute.
resting information concerning the state o
society in the British Isles, which we may
probably quote another day. This will suf-
fice to show the character of the representative
body whose suspension (we speak figuratively) is
so much to be deprecated by all the admirers of
popular Constitutions ; but what are we to do if
they choose to suspend themselves? A man may
be hanged by his own hands as well as by those of
the public executioner, and if the Irish song may be
trusted, even beasts and reptiles have been known
to seek in suicide a refuge from the fear of de-
struction by violence :
The frogs went hop, the toads went flop,
And tumbled in the water ;
The bastes committed suicide,
To save themselves from slaughter.
The case of the House of Assembly is stil
more anomalous. They commit suicide and then
raise a clamour about their preservation. They
abdicate their functions, and protest against the
interference of the Supreme Government to fill the
place which they choose to vacate. They first
prove that they are totally unfit for the duties as-
signed to them, they then declare their determina-
tion not to perform those duties, and finally, when
Lord JOHN RUSSELL proposes to suspend by law
that which is already suspended in fact, the Tory
cry for delay is raised, and we are called upon to
consider how fearful a thing it is to put down a
I popular Constitution.

We agree with the Standard that the office o
Lord Lieutenant is very much degraded since
every Tory is compelled to obey the command of a
Whig Ministry. It is quite a scandal, we admit,
that a bigoted Church•of England Lord Lieutenant
should not be allowed to proscribe every man who
does not go to the same Church as himself, or who
differs from him in his mode of praying and wor-
shipping his Maker. The Dissenters ought to pay
all taxes, bear all the burdens of the State, but they
ought to be carefully excluded, according to the
Duke of NEWCASTLE, from all its emoluments and
honours. Fur the Tory Lords not to be
allowed to carry out such principles to their
full extent, is, we quite agree with the Stan-
dard, a most grievous injury and insult.
They ought by no means to submit to it.
They ought not to wait to be dismissed, like the
Duke of NEWCASTLE, but should at once resign,
like consistent, narrow-minded, indignant, factious
politicians as they are. What can be more deroga-
tory, more disgraceful, to such high-hearted heroes
of the Church, than to serve under the Shabby
Whigs, every day dreading that they may receive a
mandate to place a Dissenter on the Commission
or retire from office. We hope that the Standard
will join with us in earnestly advising all the Tory
Lords Lieutenant instantly to resign, and no longer
to serve under a Shabby Ministry, which will not
allow them to make religious creeds a test of exclu-
sion from the honours of the Magistracy.
ed .ste.

Yesterday a Deputation of Members of the House
of Commons, and other gentlemen interested in the

question of Post Office Reform, waited by appoint-
ment on Lord MELBOURNE. They were politely
received, and their statements listened to with great
attention. His Lordship assured the Deputation
that he would take all the matters they had brought
under his notice into his serious consideration, but
as the question concerned the Revenue he could not
come to any hasty decision. We venture to say,
with all deference to the-Government, that the paltry
revenue obtained from the Post Office ought
not for one moment to be put into competition
with the convenience of the people. The
revenue is raised for their advantage ; on no
other plea, dare any statesman venture to take a
single shilling out of their pockets ; and, when a
mode of raising a few hundred thousand pounds is
found to impede commerce, to chill affection, to
stifle knowledge, and to weaken both the social
ties and the guarantees of morality, it ought not
one moment to be tolerated. What advantage to
the people is derived from the Post Office revenue
which can balance its gigantic evils ? The mo-
nopoly of coals, the corn tax, are gross and
palpable iniquities, but the Legislature, bribed
by class interests, has to answer for them ; for
the post tax, almost as mischievous as the coal
monopoly or the corn law, the Government, which
is usually called paternal is responsible. Lord
MELBOURNE, we are aware, did not devise and
did not inflict the mischief, and the greater honour,
therefore, it will be to him, to deserve the appro-
bation of the millions by extinguishing it.

We call attention to the contemptible proceedings
at Hatton-garden office yesterday, and to the ap-
propriate conclusion of the scene. The greatest in-
dignation we understand prevails in Islington
against the Parish Authorities, for the vain and
harrassing warfare they have carried on for some
time against the small dealers that supply the poor
with the necessaries of life. They surpass even Sir
ANDREW AGNEW ;
and the Magistrate, Mr. BUR-
RELL, seems to encourage them in their folly.
There is no law against selling oil. on a Sunday to
cure a scalded child, yet one of the persons sum_
moned was fined for performing this act of necessity and
mercy. Out of evil, however, cometh good, and the
very proceedings of yesterday will give an additional
stimulus to the inhabitants, who are about to form
a Society to protect themselves against these absurd
L attempts to make the Lord's Day respected.

On the motion of Mr. E. RICE, the House of
Commons agreed last night to an Inquiry into the
state of the Harbours of the South-Eastern Coast
of England. Mr. Aider Mall THOMPSON moved
as an amendment that the North-Eastern Coast
should be included in the inquiry ; but in conse-
quence of the opposition of the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, the Hon. Member was obliged
to withdraw it. Now we can neither see the expe-
diency nor the sound policy of such opposition on
the part of Mr. SPRING RICE. He could hardly
have objected to the amendment on the score of
expense, for in point of fact the survey of the two
coasts would not cost the Government a shilling
more than will the examination of the one ; while
in the meantime the very objects which the Go-
vernment alleges to have in view in sanctioning the
inquiry—viz., the protection of commerce, and the
safety of the nation in the event of a war—are ren-
dered abortive by confining it to one district. To
what danger is the South-Eastern coast of Eng-
land liable to which the North-East i 5 not
equally exposed ? Is the former nearer the Baltic
—the only quarter from which we are threatened
with invasion—than the latter ? It is astonishing
that men who can grasp the whole of a question at
once—who can see it in its complete bearings—,