The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-06 00:00:00

into effect by the Government, and which, con—
cerning not an individual interest but the interest
of the whole, appears as if it could only be '
well carried into effect by the Government—
why cannot such a necessary provision be made
by our Government as by the Government of
Belgium ? Because the faction, let whichever
will be in office, will make a job of it, will
increase its power to the discomfort and weakness
of the other faction, which would therefore resist
it to the -utmost. A system of railroads is
essential to the public prosperity ; to be executed
well it must be executed on general prin-
siples, and must embrace the whole empire ;
but it must rot be allowed, because it would give the
faction which might he in office when it was car-
ried into effe a long lease of place. This is bad
enough, but i is not the worst consequence of this
state of things. Why cannot the Government
provide for every necessary part of the public
safety, such as by police, external defence,
etc., etc. ? Because the factions which have
alternately possessed it, and have alternately
worked it to the promotion of their own
interests and the treading down of the other faction,
have made the Government an ohject of suspicion
and mistrust. It has misused its po-ver to serve
bad purposes ; it has been so long the enemy, not
the friend of the people; so long the tool of fac-
tions not the instrument of the public good, that all
persons, except those who mmediatcly administer it
or share its emoluments, look on it with suspicion,
mistrust, and even hatred, and will not willingly
concede it an atom more power, whether by esta-
blishing railroads or providing a general police,
than they can help. These are some of the gene-
ral consequences of the old English constitutional
practice of making the Government the prey of
fictions, of which the Tories, forsooth, now that
they arc the outs, and feel the hoof of the Whigs
on their necks in such appointments as that
of Lord FORTESCUE, bitterly complain. Wise men
however, 11.21 p themselves ; and if the Tories can-
not turn out the Whigs, they ought to have fora-
' rude enough to bear the consequences of their own
inferiority without alternately whining and bluster-
ing. It will be an eternal disgrace to the Tories,
as a faction, if they do not, after w hat they have
said, make an attempt to stop Lord FORTESCUE
from going to Ireland.

Admiral Sir EDWARD CODRINGTON'S motion
for an Address to the Crown, praying her MA-
JESTY to enlarge the powers of the Naval and Ali, •
litary Commission now sitting, so as to embrace the
subjects of pensions, pay, the manning of ships, and
what other points might occur to the Commissioners
as bsnefitial to the public service, was last night
negatived. without a division. The Gallant Ad-
miral could hardly expect a different result if he
was sensible of the vagueness and informality
of his motion, which was introduced with-
out . notice, and so worded as to mix up
a poposal definite resolution of the House with
the question of an Address to the Crown. Still the
debate upon it will assist in opening the eyes of the
country to the peculiar grievances of a service upon
the efficiency of which depends the safety -of the
country. The Honourable and Gallant Admiral
complained that the rate of. payment in every grade
of the service, from the highest .to the lowest,
was shamefully disproportioned to the duties
required ; and he cited several instances, all
proving that nothing was more common
in the adminstration of the Navy than the neglect of
veterans whose honourable career had entitled them
to the gratitude of their country. Nobody, we be-
lieve, will question the accuracy of this statement.
And yet this happens in a country where maids of
honour, palace grooms, porters, scullions, and
we know not how many besides, are quartered upon
the Pension-list, at a rate dictated by the wildest
mania for extravagance. The fleet is starved to
keep up the dignity of the dowager service about
the purlieus of the Palace. Admirals are com-
pelled to go on short commons, that Honour-
able Misses may draw quarterly for pin-money
upon the Treasury. The right arm of the nation
is sacrificed to the more pressing necessities of
the butterflies of a Court, or the tools a
Minister ! And yet we have no doubt the Go-
vernment will have the hardihood to make any at-
tempt to improve the Naval Service a pretext for
the imposition of fresh taxes ? We trust that be-
fore consenting to any such measure, the honest
Reformers in the House of Commons will insist
upon the appointment of a Committee to inquire
into the particulars of the expenditure of those now
raised, and whether they will not admit of the car-
rying out of all desirable projects of improvement in
the Navy without entailing another farthing in the
shape of taxes upon the nation. ,

The Right Rev. Father in God CHARLES
JAMES, that meek and pious successor of the
Apostles, last night poured forth a heart-piercing
lamentation on the awful corruption of morals for
which the present generation is remarkable above
all that have preceded it. To such a pitch of in-
iquity have we arrived that a man has actually mar-
ried his grandmother ! What that man will do
next it is impossible for us to conjecture,
but we are of opinion that the Bishop ought
to keep an eye upon him, for it is clear,
he bears no goodwill to the Establishment. Had
he married his grandmother, or even his great
grandmother, according to the rites of the Church,
we should never have heard a word about the mat-
ter ; but, as he has had the impiety to slight her
marriage ordinance, his sin is of the blackest dye.
Now, every body knows that it is, and always
has been, forbidden to marry one's grandmother ;
but in this case the relationship is not that of a
grandmother and grandson, properly so called,
there being, in fact, not a drop of the blood
of the one party in the veins of the
other. There is affinity, but no consanguinity, and
the grandmother is, besides, considerably younger
than the grandson. It is further to be observed,
that although this marriage is illegal, the law which
makes it so is only a few years old. If these things
are duly considered, the enormity may perhaps ap-
pear not quite so heinous as the good Bishop would
represent it to be.
But why should this God-fearing Prelate lay
this sin at the door of the new marriage law ? It
is true, no doubt, that the marriage did take place
before the Registrar ; but is it not equally true that
under the old law there was, anti indeed there is
still in Church marriages, ten times the facility for
clandestine operations that there is under the new
system ? Is this candid ? Does it not smack
somewhat of that hypocrisy that can measure the
guilt of a poor player, who exercises his calling in
Lent, by the locality in which he sins ?
Then again the Bishop would not only repeal
the New Marriage Act, but also the Registration
Act. And why ? Because says he, it has made
the Church " lose its influence over the lower
orders of the people." Well done, CHARLES
JAMES I The Church lose its influence over the
people ! We should like to know when it had any
influence to lose. If the Right Reverend Bench
could command their countenances when this
" screamer''—to use brother Jonathan's favourite
phrase—was uttered, their features must be cast
in bronze. " Not a person," continues the Bishop
of LONDON, " will now bring a child to Church
for baptism ;1 and in proof of this, one case
is adduced in which the Clergyman was obliged
to refuse the rites of burial to a child be-
cause it had not been baptised. All this is no doubt
exceedingly hard upon the Church ; but we dan
give the Clergy a recipe for securing baptism to the
children of the Establishment, which will be infi-
nitely more efficacious than the repeal of the Re-
gistration Act—let them abolish their baptismal
fees.

The trial Of ARCHIBALD BOLAM, for the
murder of a man named MILLIE, at Newcastle,
has bee❑ postponed to the Summer Assizes, Mr.
Baron ALDERSON observing that by having his
trial put off, the prisoner would be tried in the or-
dinary course, by a jury coming from a distance.