The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-06 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

of Settlement. There can be no doubt that it is
for the good of the community, as long as the Mo-
narchy is to be preserved--whatever order of priests
the QUEEN may favour—that she should be suffered
still to reign, though she may act in direct opposi-
tion to one positive but unreasonable law. A
deviation in the Sovereign from one enactment, by
which no person will be injured in his faith, his repu-

Cation, his person, or his property, would be a very in•
__ _

sufficient reason for resisting the customary authority
of Queen VICTORIA. " Not every invasion of the
subjects' rights or liberty, or of the Constitution,"
says PALEY, " not every breach of promise, or of
oaths, not every stretch of prerogative, abuse of
power, or neglect of duty by the Chief Magistrate,
or by the whole or any branch of the legislative

;body, justifies resistance, unless these crimes draw
a fter them public consequences of sufficient magni-
tude to outweigh the evils of civil disturbance."
Every such question as deposing a Sovereign
:must be tried by its own merits ; and personal con-
siderations must not be overlooked. The substitu-

tion of WILLIAM 111. for JAMES 11., placed
the foremost hero of civil and religious liberty then
reigning in Europe on the throne of a poor bigot,
the tool of a despotic priesthood, the pensioner and
ally of the great enemy of England. The sub-
stitution of Prince ERNEST for Queen VICTORIA
would place a hoary sinner, one of the most outra-
geous despots in a small way, and one of the poorest
bigots who now sit on the thrones of Europe, in
the seat of a young Lady who, as far as time has
yet developed her character, is kindly and liberal,
full of truth, virtuous affections, and goodness.
To make such an astounding change, the nation
would require, even could it be quietly and peaceably
made, more sufficient reasons than an infringement
of a clause of an antiquated law, which has
never been called into operation since it was made,
and may be fairly said, till the Tories revived it
for a factious purpose, to have fallen into des-
uetude.

But could such a change be quietly and peace-
ably be made supposing Queen VICTORIA to turn
Papist ? That would not disparage her in the
eyes of her Catholic subjects, forming one-third of
her people, and they would assuredly stand by her,
and maintain her right against Prince ERNEST

and the Tories. All the persons who are indifferent
or hostile to the union between Church and State,
now not a few, would never desert her MAJESTY
for Prince ERNEST. The Protestant Dissenters
might not like a Catholic Queen, but neither
would they like a despotic King, and they would
probably balance between the two, or favour her
MAJESTY. The Whigs would probably sacrifice

their Church to their State, and would side with the
QUEEN. The Anglican Church is no longer re-
garded with much favour, and few persons except
its priests—many of whom, including all the
Puseyites, would readily conform to Catholicism—
would think it worth their while to plunge the com-
munity into civil war, for the sake of pre-
serving such a rotten and worthless Esta-
blishment, and placing Prince ERNEST at
its head. There would be little or no pro-
bability that he and the Tories could succeed
against Queen VICTORIA, were she to turn Papist
to-morrow, of which there is no chance whatever ;
and it is quite certain that an attempt to change
the succession on a religious ground would put an
end to the peace and the prosperity of the empire.
The legal penalty for turning Papist could not,
in fact, be enforced against her MAJESTY, and
the law, like the often-abused thunder of the
Times, must necessarily be almost a nullity. It
might produce mischief, but it cannot now be a
national guide, and if the Anglican priesthood have
nothing better to stand on than that, and on con-
strained oaths, they may prepare themselves for a
speedy adieu to their supremacy.
In the beginning of our yesterday's article we
said that the Times had referred to this clause with
more of the sagacity of the parrot than the man.
We have fully proved that. What is the force or
Utility of a law which cannot be carried into exe-
cution ? Our Contemporary yesterday, however,
repeated its parrot notes, which demonstrates that
with all its bluster it has not more sense than the
,bird which utters sounds without the least compre-
hension of what they mean. It is worthy, how-
ever, of the Tories, and the Tories are worthy of
it, for they have always screamed out words that
Were the signs of passed away prejudices, with a
view to kindle the anger of the ignorant and un-
thinking. Only such are affected by them, and if
they saw these mock patriots in their true colours
they would be ashamed of their leaders.
We may add, for the edification of the Times,
that the Bill of Rights does not provide for a very
prob able case, namely, the Sovereign marrying a
person who is at the time of the alliance a professed
Protestant, and afterwards becomes a Catholic.
Prince ALBERT, for example, who is now a Pro-
testant, may six months after his marriage turn
Papist, which will not forfeit her MAJESTY'S title
to the Crown.

In another part of The Sun will be found a cir.
cular which the clergy of Kent and Sussex have
addressed to their congregations on the subject of
registration. The clergy in this circular renew an
assertion which has been before made by some of
them, and on some occasions carried into practice,
namely, that the officiating clergyman of a parish is
not permitted to perform the funeral service over
the dead body of any person who shall die unbap-
tised by a minister of the Church." To clinch the
'natter, the circular also states " that no minister
of the Church is allowed to perform the funeral
Service over any body which shall have died
Without the baptism of the Church." Such
is not the law, as we lately showed on the autho-
rity of the Bishop of NORWICH, and we are quite
sure it is not the practice. "A clergymen (says an
Evening Contemporary) places himself in peril of
heavy penalties who refuses to perform the funeral
service prescribed by the Rubric at the grave, being
within the churchyard, over any body by whom-
soever baptised ; nor is he to require, as a condition
of doing so, proof of such baptism. Whether he
regard it valid or not, he is not at liberty to object
to its validity,
as a reason to justify his refusal.
Baptism is not by the law, which every clergyman
is bound to obey, a sine qua i
non for " Christian
burial.''

If it were the practice, the clergyman must ne-
cessarily require a certificate of baptism to accom-
pany every corpse. Nothing so revolting is done.
In the great majority of cases the clergyman is
quite satisfied by an application for his services, that
they ought to be given. If that were not the ge.
neral rule, the observations of our Correspondent,
" One of the Multitude," in the Evening
Sun
of Tuesday, and the Morning Sun of Wednesday,
would convict the clergy of being the veriest time-
servers and wealth-worshippers that ever existed.
Who ever heard of one of them refusing to perform
the burial service for a rich man or for a prince,
without asking any question as to his baptism ?
The practice, therefore, agrees with the law, and
it will be a most illegal innovation for the
priesthood now to require a certificate of bap-
tism by some cleraymen of the Anglican Church
for every corpse before they will perform over it
the funeral service.

It will be noticed by those who, like us, are
lather careful in watching the assumptions of the
priesthood, that this threat of non-burial, unless
the.rite of baptism be first performed, is another
example of the use of undefined terror by the
clergy, in order to make men submit to t r
ordinances and to their power. The Papal pr
hood cannot possibly make more arrogant clai

or enforce them in a more priestly manner, than
the Anglican Clergy.

Before we conclude we must direct the attention
of our readers to a letter which we copy from the
Brighton Guardian, inserted in another part of The
Sun, describing the contest at Pevensey between the
Churchwarden and the Vicar, relative to the preser-
vation of a majestic tree which stands in the church-
yard, the Vicar having ordered it to be felled, and
the Churchwarden having by force resisted the
Vicar's workmen. To be placed beneath " the
yew tree's shade," or beneath the shade of
other trees, is a hallowed desire common to
mankind in all ages ; and the inhabitants of Pe.
vensey must be filled with just resentment at the
sacriligious orders of the Vicar to destroy the
noble tree under which " the rude forefathers of
the hamlet sleep." Selfish extortioners and arro-
gant denouncers as are the great bulk of the priests,
now that they begin sacriligiously to trample on
the best feelings of their parishioners, they will
surely revolt against them those very associations
and apprehensions they have so long cultivated to
their exclusive profit.

The African question occupies, naturally enough,
the attention of the whole of the Paris Press. The
Commerce of Wednesday, which we have received
along with the other French Journals of the same
date, attributes the commencement of hostilities on
the part of ABD-EL-KADER to the ridiculous,
Hudibrastic expedition of the Duke of ORLEANS
to the Iron Gates. We are assured, says that
Journal, that the Government has suppressed an
important document which Marshal VALEE
sent with his Report of the 24th of No-
vember. It is a declaration from ABL-EL-
KADER that the principal motive of his aggression
was the expedition to the Iron Gates. The Emir
complains, in terms full of anger, that a French
corps violated his territories, and attacked peaceable
tribes, who wished to oppose the invasion ; that if
he had been previously aware of the expedition he
would have met it at the Iron Gates at the head of
his army, and that the French should not have
passed without marching over the bodies of himself
and his soldiers. It was this that induced him to
call upon the Faithful to join in the holy war, it
being the duty of every true Mussulman to prefer
death to injustice and oppression from infidels.
This statement is exceedingly probable, and, if
confirmed, will render the expedition of the Duke
truly ridiculous. His Highness's popularity is
already on the wane. For accounts of the prepara-
tions making to carry on the war with vigour, and
the actual condition of French Africa, we refer our
readers to subjoined extracts from the private cor-
respondence of the Paris journals.
M. DURAND, the principal Editor of the Ca-
pitole, was arrested on suspicion of being con-
cerned in a Bonapartist plot on Tuesday. This
gentleman is likely to give LOUIS PHILIPPE more
trouble than any other newspaper writer in France.
The following is his own witty account of this affair.
His epigrams, like scorpions, have stings in their
tails. Our readers will not fail to see how dan-
gerous an opponent the writer of such a letter as
the following must be to a corrupt Government,
opposed in all its acts to the principles upon which
it professes to have been established :

ARREST OF M. DURAND, PRINCIPAL EDI-
TOR OF THE " CAPITOLE."

" Paris, December 3.

"My dear Brother Editors.—You will, perhaps,
hear that my house bas been visited by the police,
and that I have been thrown into prison ; let not this
intelligence excite your risibility too much, for there is
some truth in the case ; but come, I will tell you the
whole adventure.
" This morning, between six and seven, I was awoke
by hearing my bell ring. I immediately jumped up,
and hastened to open my door. A tall man, with a
red riband, and having, in truth, all the appearance of
a gentleman, was standing there with five or six
others, one of whom held a lighted candle. " Sir,
it is the police !" Very well, one must always ask the
police to come in, for they would do so without the
invitation, and one thus acquires the reputation of being
polite.
" Closets, chests, table-drawers, were ransacked with
the greatest politeness. It was not possible to annoy
one with greater delicacy.
" I was present at the inventory, and every now and
then the police commissary of the first arondissement
(for the King and I belong to it) told me to dress my-
self. I requested him to pay no attention to my not
being dressed ; but he continued to urge the same re-
quest. I told him I was not cold, and thanked him.
At last the request was a torrent of light—' Dress
yourself, sir, for you arc to accompany us.' I then con-
cluded that 1 was arrested, and put on my boots to pro-
ceed, properly attended, to a certain building in the
Rue de Jerusalem, with which you are well acquainted.
" When there, a gentleman looked at me rather
harshly, and gave me a paper in the room of the one I
had. After which, escorted by a gendarme, I was con-
ducted to a door, which was opened, on ringing, by a
gaoler. I was then introduced, the bolt was drawn on the
outside, and somebody bawled to the head man of the
place, a political prisoner .1" This pleased me a little,
for it is always agreeable not to be taken for a thief.

" A man then came forward, and led me to a vile-
looking room, where I was searched, doubtless to see
if I had not some infernal machine in my pocket, like
the one of the Rue Montpensier. The result of the in-
spection was the discovery of 60 francs in my waist-
coat pocket, 40 of which were taken away, and the re-
mainder was left me as pocket-money. I was then taken
up a second story, into a cell, which was immediately
bolted.

" I examined the furniture of my roam, which con-
sisted of a table, chair, and bed, with a grey blanket
and two bolsters. The upper one, at first sight, appeared
rather dirty, but a minute after I rendered it due jus-
tice, for it was infinitely cleaner than the under one.
" When the gaoler entered, I asked him if he could
not give me anything cleaner to lay my head on ? He
told me it was impossible, for the effects belonged to
Government, and could not be changed, even for money.
I could not conceive what interest they could have in
making political prisoners lie in dirt, but I said nothing,
lest I should pass for being over-nice.
" Can I write to my wife ?" said I to the gaoler.
" Yes, Sir," and be instantly gave me a sheet of letter-
paper. I wrote, and begged him to send my letter to
its address immediately. A porter undertook to take
it. Now judge how great was this morning's fog—the
kind fellow who had taken charge of my letter, mistook.
his road so much that my missive to my wife, instead of
reaching her, found its way into the room of the Juge
d'lnstruction.

" Alone in my room, and not knowing what to do, I
thought of following the example of Lafontaine's hare—
' What can one do in one's form but dream f'—aud as
my cell barely allowed me room to turn, I laid down on
my pallet.

" I was disturbed at twelve, and was obliged to go
down stairs between two gendarmes, one at my side and
the other behind me ; and had you been walking at that
time on the quay between the Prefecture de Police and
the Palais de Justice, you would have seen your prin-
cipal editor marched through the streets like a culprit
about to be tried at the Assizes, and exciting the com-
misseration of all passing that way by his placid
countenance.
" At length I was brought before the Juge ("Instruc-
tion, M. Lingracomi, who did not seem to consider me
asany great catch. He examined me frankly and pro-
perly ; and letters scattered over his table showed me
upon what and whom my examination was to be. I
ould lay any wager that the Judge learned from me
nothing that he was not acquainted with previously, but
he was enabled to see that in my political creed, as in all
others, there was no dearth of honourable men.
" The Judge understood his business, and separating
from his voluminous evidence what concerned the
Capitols alone, he ordered me to be liberated—an agree-
able and just termination after such brutal treatment.
and rights of the citizen, take note of
" Fellow.labourers, who prefer discussing ministerial
questions to protesting in a body against the violation of
the dwelling
what has happened to me to-day, for it will be your turn
to-morrow.
"Your dwelling
will be searched, and you will have
issued against You, not a mandat de comparation, which
would merely oblige you to attend at a proper hour, but
a mandat d'amener, as is issued against thieves, galley-
slaves who have served their time, and other malefactors
that can be compelled to obey, should they attempt to
resist. You will be imprisoned in the Prefecture de
Police, and then you will be marched off between two
gendarmes, along the quay, to de Justice,
while you will hear the crowd,uay,
eete
see you, in-
quire, Is he a thief ? Is he an ass
min? No—he is
the principal editor of a journal.
" This is my history ; one day it will be
yours. It
was for such an end that a revolution was made in July
" It CHARLES Du A ND"
King LOUIS PHILIPPE has just raised his fourth
son, the Duke of AUMALE, from the rank of Cap.
tain to that of Chief of Battalion in the 4th Regi.