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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS•

It is hardly necessary again to call the attention of
the Liberal Members of the House of Commons to the
important subject which is this night to occupy the
attention of the House of Commons. Ministers pro-
pose to cement the union between Great Britain and
Ireland by extending to the latter country the muni-
cipal institutions which have been productive of such
signal benefit to England and Scotland. On the
other hand, the Opposition say that the empire should
not be governed impartially, that the institutions and
the laws of one section of the United Kingdom should
be dissimilar to those of another, and that the salutary
reforms which have been effected in Liverpool should
not be extended to Dublin ; and they assign as the
reason for these monstrous and insulting distinc-
tions, that the majority of the citizens of Dublin
are Roman Catholics. Should Parliament sanction
these Tory opinions, it will be downright inconsis-
tency not to repeal the Catholic Relief Act, and not
to make it penal to write or speak of the United King-
dom. Ministers think it more politic, more consis-
tent, more virtuous and just, to legislate for Ireland as
they do for England, and in the same spirit, than to
revive religious animosity and engender diseffection in
the sister country. In this admirable determination
they will be warmly sustained by the representatives of
the people, when the division shall be taken upon
Lord Francis Evert; U's dexterous and mischievous
amendment. We regret to find that a number of
Liberal Members are still absent from their post ; but
we are confident the majority will be such as to de-
monstrate to Sir Robert Peel the utter hopeless-
ness, nay, the fatuity, of any attempt, in any
quarter, to govern Ireland as a conquered province.
We may as well correct here a misrepresentation
on the subject of the majority against Lord
Francis Egerton's motion last year. It was not 86,
as stated by the John Bull, but 64 ; and when the
Bill was read a third time, the majority was 61. In
the division on the Lords' Amendments they were re-
jected by a majority of 86 ; and that is the only ma-
jority of 86 in the whole progress of the measure. It
is not without design that this majority is misrepre-
sented. It will, of course, be carefully shown by the
Tories, should the majority against Lord Francis
Egerton's motion be anything below 86, that this
falling off is a proof of the feeling of the country hav-
ing changed with regard to the measure. The accounts
from Dungarvon and Carlow afford a pretty conclusive
demonstration that, at all events, the feeling of the
" aliens" is not changed with regard to the insult of
Lord Lyndhurst and the Teries, which they propose
to renew. We trust that the English liberal Mem-
bers will not be behind the Irish Members, in their
anxiety to conciliate Ireland, by the communication
of wise and beneficent Institutions.—Morn. Chronicle.
We were yesterday prevented by want of space
from noticing the case of Gompertz v. Weston, tried
in the Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, and re-
ported in the Chronicle of Wednesday last. It af-
fords a pregnant proof of the degraded condition in
which the working clergy of the Church of England
are suffered to remain. Can we wonder that the
clergy of that Church should on almost all occasions
be the ready instruments of despotism, when we find
them in a state of the most hopeless slavery ? When
did ever the slave feel due respect for the rights of
the free man ? The Bishop of London may in some
respects
,be considered the greatest benefactor of the in-
ferior clergy, because the enormous power possessed by
the Prelates has never been suffered to remain idle
in his hands. It used to be said of the old monarchy
of France that it was a despotism tempered 'by
ballads. In like manner it may be said that the
absolute power of the Bishops over the work-
ing clergy is often tempered by gentlemanly
feeling. But to all those who are acquainted
with the interior history of the Church, it is tolerably
well known that the Bishop of London has never
shown himself particularly anxious to temper the
power with which he is invested by too much regard
for the feelings of others. Hence his treatment of the
working clergy, by leading the public to sympathise
with them, is calculated to accelerate the remedial
measures necessary for their protection. The Rev.
Mr. Gompertz had served several curacies in a very
exemplary manner, conciliating the goodwill of the
flocks committed to his care, and displaying a more
than ordinary zeal for the promotion of education and
charitable institutions. On leaving Little Bromley to
return to Little Harlington, the cure of which he had
formerly served, it was necessary that he should obtain
a licence from the Bishop of London, and on making
application to his Lordship he received for answer, that
there were certain complaints lodged against him,
,and
until an investigation had taken place, his request could
not he complied with. The charges were proved
to be all of them without the slightest foundation.
The Bishop of London stated in Court that " if the
charges had been cleared up before the Archdeacon, I
should have granted the licence, although unwillingly,
being convinced Mat a good deal of ill-will existed
between Mr. Gompertz and some of hi.; parishioners."
This was stated on cross-examination. On his re-ex-
amination the Bishop stated that—
" Application was made to inspect the papers, but it
was refused. If the complaining parties had not appeared
before the Archdeacon, I should have granted the licence :
but it would have been necessary, in the first instance, to
make inquiry ; that inquiry would not have been made on
oath ; I have no power to compel the attendance of wit-
nesses ; the application to inspect was made on the 29th of
June ; the charges were received by me on the 17th of
that month ; it was an application in writing from a solicitor,
and I refused because I conceived it was a privileged com-
munication; and if it were not kept private it would be
impossible to know what the conduct of clergymen was in
many cases."
We may see
.the working of the Bishop's anxiety
not to discourage communications respecting the con-
duct of clergymen, that lie had been led by them to
believe that there was much between Mr. Gom
pertz and some of his parishioners, and would in con-
sequence have unwillingly granted him a licence ;
whereas it was proved that he was greatly respected
by his parishioners, and that all the hostility to him
was traceable to an individual. But let us see how the
lion's-mouth system works as regards the poor curate :
" The Bishop of London being about to retire, a jury-
man begged to put a question to his Lordship as to whether
Mr. Gompertz was entirely suspended from his clerical
functions ?

" His Lordship said he was not suspended except in this
particular parish.
" Mr. Sergeant Wilde—Until an investigation shall have
been made under the directions of your Lordship, can Mr.
Gompertz be licensed for any other parish ?
" The Bishop—l cannot speak of other dioceses ; but as
fir as my diocese is concerned, be would not be licensed till
this matter is cleared up.
" Mr. Sergeant Wilde—Could Mr. Gompertz be licensed
in any other diocese without testimonials from your
Lordship ?
" The Bishop—Certainly not. Testimonials would be
required in any other diocese, which I would not give till
this matter was cleared up.
" A Juryman—May I ask your Lordship whether Mr.
Gompertz's pecuniary emotuments have ceased ?
" Tho Bishop—Certainly."
Here, then, a man to whose exemplary character a
host of witnesses bore testimony, and against whom,
literally, nothing whatever could be urged, would by
the system of the Church of England law have been
completely ruined but for the interposition of a jury
which awarded him 2001. damages against his accuser.

Had, however, the accuser been witliout the means of
paying damages the poor curate would have obtained
no redress. The Bishop of London 'deems it hip
duty to encourage communications from all quar-
ters. He suspends the curate till he is satis-
fied with regard to his conduct ; the curate sf,
suspended receives no pecuniary emoluments, and
there is an understanding among the. Bishops not to
interfere with each other ; so that a curate who dis-
pleases one Bishop may be said to be placed without
the pale of the Church. So long as the Bishop of
London refuses his testimonials, so long must a curate
resign himself to starvation. Such is the abject state
of the working clergy of the Church of England !
What degree of vigilance can ensure a curate against
the ruinous exercise of a Bishop's power? While he
imagines his labours have obtained for him the grati-
tude of his parishioners, a secret detractor may have
gained the ear of the Bishop, and a suspension re-
duces him to beggary. A curate receiving less than
a journeyman carpenter, perhaps with a wife and large
family, must abide the is sue of air inquiry, the dura-

tion of which depends on the discretion of the Bishop,
without the means of support. Purity of life, exemplary
zeal in the discharge of the ministerial duties, are no
protection ; but the favour of a Bishop may be gained by
servile and obsequious conduct. This affords us a key
to the servility of the clergy. The clergymen of the
Established Church of Scotland, and of the Dissent-
ing Presbyterian Churches in that country, have this
advantage over the working clergy of the Church of
England, that they are secure against private detrac-
tion. If their conduct be impeached, it must be im-
peached in a Church court, according to prescribed
forms, and they are presumed innocent till condemned
after a fair trial ; whereas the poor curate is first con
demned to poverty, and then tried. The power pos-
sessed by the Bishops is often, if we are to credit the
Rev. Sydney Smith, most tyrannically abused. Surely
much time will not be suffered to elapse before some
steps are taken to place the working clergy of the
Church of England on a footing somewhat above that
of the lowest menial. If you discharge your footman,
he can at least find employment elsewhere ; but the
curate who has been turned to the streets in one dio-
cese can find shelter in no other.—Morning Chronicle
of Saturday.

On the motion for going into committee on the mea-
sure which is so absurdly miscalled the Irish Corpo-
rations Bill, Lord Francis Egerton will this evening

repeat his motion of last year—viz., " That the Com-
mittee be empowered to make provision for the abo-
lition of such Corporations ; and for such arrange-
ments as may be necessary, on their abolition, for
securing the efficient and impartial administration of
justice, and the peace and good government of cities
and towns in Ireland." The notice of this motion
has already produced much weeping and wailing and
and gnashing of teeth among the Whig-Radical
scribes, and, taking these as indications of the feelings
of their employers, we are certainly not all surprised
at them. Last year not a single argument was ad-
duced in favour of the Government measure; and
though we can easily believe that the Ministers and
their supporters may have since last Session stumbled
upon a plausible pretext or two, over and above the
advantage of establishing normal schoolsof agitation for
Mr. Daniel O'Connell, still it is not within the bounds
of possibility that they should have found out a way to
meet any one of those reasons which were so power-
fully and (out of doors, at least) so successfully urged
against the Bill by the Conservatives, as well in the
House of Commons as in the House of Lords, eight
or nine months ago. As well might an exhibitor of
" Punch and Judy " attempt to persuade the crowd
that his puppets are real flesh and blood, as Lord
John Russell and his colleagues endeavour to palm
this Bill upon the public as a measure of " reform, or
of " equal justice to Ireland, after the minute and
searching exposure to which it has been subjected.
Out of doors these are not two opinions upon the sub-
ject. Every body admits the pretence of the Bill to be
sheer humbug, and it is supported only as a party
measure, no one really believing that it does establish
municipal corporations in Ireland, or anything like
municipal corporations. The point in dispute lies in the
narrowest compass imaginable. The Ministers and their
opponents both agree that the power now vested in mu-
nicipal corporations in Ireland ought to be taken away.
The Ministers, by their Bill, seek to take it away from the
party now possessing it, and to this end, they propose
to abolish all corporations in Ireland. Thus far the
Conservatives concur with the Ministers ; but they
desire to stop here : they wish that a power which, it
is admitted on all hands, ought to be possessed by no
party shall be utterly extinguished ; whereas the
Ministers would have the Legislature by a side wind
revive the power in favour of another party—of a
party opposed to those who are at present in the enjoy-
ment of it. The truth of the matter therefore is, that
while the Conservatives propose to get rid of an ad-
mitted evil—the Ministers propose merely to shift its
position : the Conservatives would root up the rank
weed and destroy it,—the Ministers desire to take it
out of one part of the soil and transplant it in another.
We have said that there are not two opinions on this
subject out of doors ; and this fact we attribute mainly
to the circulation of the speeches delivered by the Con-
servatives against the measure last Session. It may also
prove that Mr. O'Connell's declaration, that " if they
will give him this Bill he will get all else he wants,"
has made some converts within the walls of Parliament,
as it is well calculated to have done among those who
recollect that the "repeal of the union" is only in abey-
ance—that Mr. O'Connell has lost no opportunity du-
ring the recess of impressing upon the Irish, that his
ceasing to urge it for a time is a mere experiment ;
that, upon a very recent occasion, he declared his con-
viction that nothing but a Repeal of the Union would
satisfy Ireland after all. Be this, however, as it may,
there can be no doubt that so long as argument pre-
ponderates so clearly and decidedly on the side of the
Conservatives, the result of divisions will have no effect
upon the public mind, especially when it is recollected
how some Members have found their way into Par-
liament, and how some who ought to be there have
been kept out of Parliament. Look at the account of
the Carlow Election, which appears in another column.
There we have Mr. Vigors, the go-between in the
affair of Raphael and O'Connell and the 2,0001., re-
turned by voters who have actually been struck off the
roll by a Committee of the House of Commons 1 And
yet even so he would not have had the fictitious majo-
rity he has, except for the exertions of the brawling,
bullying priests, a sample of whose oratory will be
found elsewhere. Father Maher is already so
discreditably known to the public, that even the
filthy story about a prostitute which he edified his
hearers with, and which we have no doubt his own
nasty imagination suggested—though he pretended to
give it only at secondhand—will hardly sink him lower
in the estimation of all respectable people. We invite
the attention of our readers also to the conduct of the
persons assembled at the nomination. Surely it was
like carrying coals to Newcastle when O'Connell gave
vent to his blackuardism in Carlow, and talked to a
populace under the guidance of such priests about
spitting in their opponents' faces while living, and
throwing dead dogs into their graves when dead. Mr.
Vigors's vote, however, will be given for the present,
while the gentleman who ought to have his seat, and
the gentleman who ought to have the seat for Long-
ford, which Mr. Luke White will not defend, are lost
to the other side. In the conviction, however, that
the opinions of those with whom the decision of the
question must ultimately rest are decidedly opposed to
the Ministerial measure which is to be discussed to-
night, we leave the matter for the present ; and so
long as justice and reason are on the one side, we care
little what, for a time, may be the amount of numbers
on the other, or how those numbers may be made up.
The day of reckoning cannot be very far distant.—
Times.

Lord Brougham has presented several petitions from
the Dissenters, for the abolition of Church-rates. The
petition which his Lordship presented on Tuesday
night was the more important as coming from the great
congress of the Dissenters established in London in
October last, to which deputies were sent from all the
Dissenting communities in the country. The con-
gress of delegates empowered to sit in London by
their constituents, for the purpose of watching over
their interests, are justly entitled to be considered as
•the representative body of all the denominations of
Dissenters. From this representative body, thus
qualified and authenticated, the petition presented by
Lord Brougham on Tuesday night was derived. It
was distinguished by some preliminary remarks on
the part of his Lordship, who justly and forcibly
vindicated for the petition that character for unani-
mity and authority for which we have just con-
tended. It must be considered in the light of the
last and ultimate resolution of the entire body of
Dissenters throughout the United Kingdom. The
petition demands the immediate and unqualified abro-
gation of Church-rates. This was a step which we
have long urged on the consideration of the Dissen-
ters. It was a step demonstrating the sincerity of
their religious convictions—a step which is no less a
duty they owe to the country than to themselves. On
a former occasion, a few nights ago, Lord Brougham
presented a petition from the dissenting body, similar
in spirit, though not supported by the same weight of
unanimous authentication. On that occasion Lord
Lyndhurst, willing to wound and yet afraid to strike,"
inquired, with a cloaked but obvious insinuation of

censure, whether the petition was for the total abo-
lition of the Church-rates ? To this insinuation
Lord Brougham replied, with a manly frankness
worthy of the resolution and the manly conduct of
the petitioners with whose petition he was invested,
" that the petition was for the total abolition, and that
the petition was, in that respect, a very wise one." We
fully concur with his Lordship. There can be no " bit-
and-bit" reformson the question any farther. There
can he no hermaphrodite measure for shuffling off the
paramount necessity of the abolition. The time for
compromise, which might have done some years ago,
is pasecd. The Dissenters have, as we urged, put
their should& to the wheel—and without calling on
the problematic assistance of Jupiter, have assisted
themselves. They have resisted the illegal infliction
Inuch-rates, and they have borne in person and
in property the penalty of the resistance. Having
screwed their courage to that sticking point, there is
no letting themselves down again to the old depth of
civil and moral humiliation. The question of aboli-
tion must now be carried unconditionally by the Go-
vernment ; or the Dissenters will be deserted by those
n ho have been their best friends, and their most effica-
cious allies ; and, if deserted, they will be alienated
for ever. If we have any complaint to make of the
Dissenters—and we have candidly stated that senti-
ment before—it is not because they have finally come
to this perempterily urgent resolution, but because
they did not come to it at a much earlier period. We
khow and respect their scruples in abstaining from
doing so. We know that they abstained from doing
so, because they did not wish to trammel the steps
of Government while adopting measures—like the
Reform Bill and its results—for the common benefit of
the entire community. Their moderation enforces
their claim. But there is a point at which patience
under grievance ought to cease. Men may consent
th:oagh patriotism, to suffer in their persons, in their
properties, and their interests; but they have no right to
sacrifice their religious and conscientious scruples to
any earthly purpose whatever. Hard as was the trial,
the Dissenters might submit to the nefarious robbery
of paying 40 per cent. for religious comfort and in-
struction where their neighbours pay but twenty ; but
they have no right to sacrifice, to any religious expe-
diency, their religious and conscientious convictions.
We repeat, that the question of paying Church-rates
by the Dissenters involves a principle of religious li-
berty—of resistance to anti-Christian persecution—
equally as much as in the case of the Society of
Friends. They had no right, in duty and in honour,
to waive this paramount principle. They have now
resolved to waive it no longer. Their demand of being
freed from this galling chain of fiscal oppression andl
religious persecution is now become irreststible, and
must be complied with.—Morning Advertiser.
The great question whether or not Ireland is to be
admitted to a fair participation in the rights enjoyed by
England and Scotland, is this night to be once more
desated in the House of Commons. The principle of
the Ministerial measure has been so frequently dis-
cussed, and not only its justice, but its expediency—
not alone its expediency, but its inevitability, so indis-
putably demonstrated, that it appears almost an insult
to the understanding of rational men to reiterate the so
oft-repeated arguments adduced in its support ; and it
would be a mere waste of time to go in search of new
evidences—if there be any not already brought forward
—to convince those who, blinded by the ferocity of
faction, would plunge the country in civil war rather
than concede the imprescriptible rights of the Irish
people. Lord Francis Egerton is this evening, before
going into Committee on the Irish Municipal Corpo-
ration Bill, to move, " That the Committee on the Bill
for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in Ire-
land be empowered to make provision for the abolition
of such Corporations ; and for such arrangements as
may be necessary, on their abolition, for securing the
efficient and impartial administration of justice, and
the peace and good government of cities and towns in
Ireland." There is a flat contradiction involved in
this motion ; for, to any one at all acquainted inith the
present state of Ireland, it must be e,ident, that if
that country be denied municipal institutions, it will
be impossible to preserve the peace, and equally impos-
sible to secure the efficient and impartial administra-
tion of justice. In the House of Commons the Tories
admit that they have no expectation of a majority, and
that the discussion is raised merely for the purpose of
affording to the House of Lords an excuse, or rather
the resemblance of an excuse, for treating the Bill in
the same manner as they did that of last session. Some
again say that it is intended by their Lordship to pass
the Bill wick just such an extent of mutilation as
may not altogether force upon the Commons the ne-
cessity of its rejection, in the hope that the adjust-
ment of the Irish Corporation question may enable
their Lordships to make a firmer stand in favour of
the abuses and corruptions of the Irish Church. We
vouch not, neither care we, for the truth of the ru-
mour, as, on both questions, the people Ireland are
pledged to the assertion of their full rights, and of
neither will they admit a compromise. Therefore the
matter on which the House of Commons will this
evening be called upon to decide is simply this—are
the people of Ireland to be governed as a conquered
and degraded race ? And before the Legislature pro-
nounces an affirmative on the point we could recom-
mend it to ponder well, even if justice and sound
policy did not revolt against such an attempt, whether
any power it has, or may have, at its disposal, be suffi-
cient to hold eight millions of people' in bondage ?
Catholic emancipation, as acknowledged by the Duke
of Wellington, a man not likely to give way nor quail
before an inferior force, was yielded to imperative
iiresistible necessity—a far greater force is now orga-
nized in support of Church and Corporation Reforms
for Ireland than was ever enlisted in the cause of
Catholic Emancipation. That was in part, or rather
was sometimes unfor.unately discussed as a sectarian
question—the present are national questions. In
proportion to their relative numbers throughout the
whole of Ireland, there are a greater number of Pro-
testants than Catholics in the General Association.
The whole Protestants, including all grades of dissent,
are not more than one-eighth of the whole popula-
tion, and of the members of the General Association
one-third are Protestant ; and if it were impossible
to withhold Catholic Emancipation from the demands
of a sect but weakly supported by the people of Eng-
land and Scotland, then but little acquainted with the
actual state of Ireland, how much more so must it be
to withhold those measures now demanded by the
whole people of Ireland, and supported by all that is
just and liberal in Great Britain ?—Morn. Adver.
The manoeuvre of the whig-radical party in Buck-
inghamshire, headed by Mr. Temple Leader and
Lord Nugent, to steal a victory from the Conserva-
tives, has ended in their signal discomfiture. The
beating which they received was, under all the cir-
cumstances, most decisive ; and if it has not satisfied
the whip-radicals that at the next general election,
they might as well expect to return the " man in the
moon" to Parliament as one of the three members for
Buckinghamshire, we know not what evidence of
the fact would be sufficient to satisfy them. When
we find that the result of the trick which we alluded
to the other day, has produced 2,228 votes for Mr.
Harcourt, the Conservative candidate, and only 982
for Mr. Dashwood, the nominee of the wing-radicals,
we are justified in saying that they who spread a net
for their opponents have been caught in it themselves,
and are exhibited as the unhappy victims of their own
contrivance to the public derision. Had they allowed
the Conservative candidate to walk over the course,
as appeared to be at first intended, the forlorn con-
dition of the Ministerial faction in Buckingham would
not have been so apparent as it now is to the country.
The inference would have been, indeed, that they
had no hopes of success, but such a miserable dis-
play of weakness as they have now presented to the
world would not have been exhibited. Already Buck-
inghamshire had two Conservative candidate;, and
that the iVinisterialists should have been be sten by
cossiderably more than two to one, in an atte apt to
get in a third candidate, makes their political prostra-
tion in that county more manifest than ever it was be-
fore. The right to practise the manoeuvre which the
Whig-Radicals did in this instance, we do not dis-
pute. It was an allowable part of electioneering stra-
tegics. What we observe upon is the folly of the
thing, when it ought to have been. known to those
who practised it, that, instead of serving their cause,
it would have had just such an effect as their enemies

would desire. Truly Lord Nugent and Mr. Leader
are clever tacticians in one way. No chiefs could dis-
play more elaborate ingenuity in ruining their own
cause. Buckinghamshire has now three repre-
sentatives whose principles are conservative and
constitutional—that is, whose principles attach
them to the preservation of the integrity of
the British Constitution in Church and State, and
who are, of course, decidedly opposed to the destruc-
tive doctrines which, under the pretence of reforming,
would subvert the settled institutions of the country.
In upholding such principles the Conservatives but act
in accordance with the sentiments expressed by Lord
Grey's Ministry when they brought in the Worm
Act, but which the Melbourne Administration, for the
sake of the support of O'Connell and his Parliamentary
" tail," have disgracefully abandoned. Great influence
was exerted, it appears, by the Government and the
landowners in its interest, to bring up the Whig-Radi-
cal candidate to the poll. A morning journal men-
tions that Lord Morpeth, who has some property near
Wotton Park, the seat of Lord Chandos, sent a man-
date to his tenantry to vote for Mr. Dashwood. The
sturdy yeomanry declared they would not be dictated
to by the Noble Secretary for Ireland—one of the
convenient tools of Mr. O'Connell's policy. They
went to Lord Chandos, the " fanner.i' friend," and
accompanied him to the hustings, where every one re-
corded his vote for Mr. Harcourt. The tenantry of
some other Whig landlords received similar mandates,
and acted with similar spirit and independence.—
Morning Herald.
To-night Lord John Russell will propose to the
House of Commons to go into Committee on the Irish
Municipal Corporations Bill ; and Lord Francis Eger-
ton will move " That the Committee be empowered
to make provision for the abolition of such Corpora-
tions, and for such arrangements as may be necessary
on their abolition for securing the efficient and impar-
tial administration of justice, and the peace and good
government of cities and towns in Ireland." To the
debate, and the division which will follow, the country
will look with the deepest anxiety. A conflict, in-
volving consequences of the last importance to the in-
terests of eight millions of our fellow-subjects, would
attract every English eye, would engage every Eng-
lish heart, even if that conflict were not, as Lord
John Russell describes it, " vital to the present Ad-
ministration." We cannot, however, expect that the
discussion of the question will have in it much of
interest apart from that which is inseparably attached
to the question itself. Novelty seems. impossible. We
are familiar alike with the arguments of our friends
and with the fallacies of our opponents. The lapse
of another year may have afforded some additional il-
lustrations of the soundness of Sir Robert Peel's con-
clusions, and some additional proofs of the extrava-
gance of Mr. O'Connell's demands. But the truths
which rested on the record of many centuries can de-
rive little further confirmation from the observation of
a few months. We shall have, therefore, a debate
similar in its general features to the debate of last year.
On the one side it will be admitted that mischief has
arisen from the present state of municipal government
in Ireland ; it will be shown that such mischief is at-
tributable not to any extraordinary personal vices
in the individuals to whom municipal govern-
ment has been entrusted, but to the error of the
system which, in a country rent asunder by religious
dissensions, entrusts municipal government to the
adherents of a dominant Church ; and it will be in-
ferred that the mischief is to be remedied, not by
confiding municipal government to the adherents of
one Church instead of the adherents of another, but
by providing that, with respect to municipal govern-
ment, there shall be no dominant Church—not by
substituting Popery for Protestantism in the mayor s
chair, but by taking care to vest the power and the
patronage of local rule in such hands as neither to
enable Popery nor to tempt Protestantism to corrupt
or to oppress. On the other side it will be contended,
that since the circumstances of Ireland are different
from those of England, the institutions of Ireland
ought to be identical with those of England ; and
the logical proposition will be enforced, as on for-
mer occasions, by the exertions of the most discur-
sive 'eloquence ; by eulogies of Lord IVlulgrave's
clemency, and of Lord Morpeth's discernment ; by
vaunts of the victories of priestcraft at Dungar-
von and Longford ; by the usual misrepresentation
of the language of Lord Lyndhurst, and the
usual mis-statement of the story of Rathcormac.
' Nor have we a better right to anticipate a different
division from that which disposed of the question in
the last Session. There are still, we believe, some
two or three Conservatives who in 1837, as in 1836,
will absent themselves from the contest, unable to
reconcile themselves to the wholesale extinction of
the charters of Irish cerporate bodies, although even
those bodies themselves are willing and desirous, for
the promotion of great and good ends, to resign their
rights and trusts. There are other Conservatives
who were induced, in the vain hope of conciliating
by sacrifice and purchasing by surrender, to give
their support to the Government measure ; and we
suppose that a mistaken idea of consistency will
still array against us those few respectable, however
' mistaken, gentlemen, though recent events may
have
.led them to perceive the insufficiency of the
sacrifice and the insanity of the surrender. Taking
these circumstances into consideration, we anticipate
that the majority of the last Session will be the ma-
jority of time present. If we are beaten by more we
concede to our antagonists a victory ; if we are beaten
by less we claim a victory for our friends. It is un-
necessary, we trust, to impress upon the Conservative
minority the necessity of a steady attendance on their
post upon this momentous occasion. They feel how
much is staked upon the issue—the dissolution of an
unprincipled Administration, which confesses the suc-
cess of this measure necessary to its continuance in
office—the independence of the House of Lords,
which an increasing Radical majority in the House of
Commons would enable the factious more audaciously
to assail—finally, the good government of the Sister
Island, than which no object ought to be pursued with
more profound desire, more perfect sincerity, or more
constant exertion.—Morning Post.

The following account of the immolation of a
Faqueer may not be uninteresting to our readers ; as, if true
(we give it upon the testimony, and in the words of a cor-
respondent), it will serve to show the extent to which blind
fanaticism may sometimes hurry its votaries :—On the morn-
ing of the 6th of August, a Faqueer was buried alive in the
village of Nidrana, three coss S. E. of Jumaul, in the Bicka-
neer States. It seems he was aware of his end 15 days before ;
he was put into the grave, but died before the earth was
thrown on him—his brother fanatics attended him in the tomb,
but when he thought his time was come, he told them, in no
very measured terms, to begone, hung his head a little, and
the soul was released from its earthly tenement. Previous to
his immolation, if it may be so called, he prophesied three
years of plenty, after which a famine ; and that the sword of
strife would be drawn at Joudpore this year..—Delhi Gazette.
An instance of the danger of judging from circum-
stantial evidence recently occurred at Berlin. In the month
of July last the body of an individual was found murdered.
The body was stripped, but beside it lay a pair of torn boots.
A name which had been written on the inside, but which was
much obliterated by. the use of some chemical compound, was
again made legible, and appeared to be Feidler. A miller's
man of that name was consequently arrested, and confined in
an unwholesome dungeon till his health was completely ruined.
He was subsequently liberated as not guilty, the real murderer
having given himself up and confessed his crime. A subscrip-
tion in favour of. Feidler has been set on foot by the courts, and
it is hoped will be sufficiently productive to compensate in
some measure for his unjust confinement.
CORSICAN ROBBERS.—A trial has just taken
place at the Court of Assizes of Corsica (Bastia), which has
been the means of breaking up a formidable band of robbers
infesting that island. It appears that Luciani, Fernidori,
Tamboni, and the two brothers Nicolar, were the chiefs of the
marauding parties; and that not only were isolated indivi-
duals attacked, but at times whole villages were put under
contribution. At length their audacity went so far, that
proclamations were issued, and posted against the church-
doors, prohibiting any assistance to be afforded to persons who
had made themselves obnoxious to the band. The Corsican
troops in vain attempted to seize the brigands; they always
contrived to elude the pursuit of justice. Eventually a man
named Dominique Battcsti, connected with the armed force,
was found to be a spy of the robbers. He is the cousin of
Tamboni, and it was clearly ascertained that he had afforded
them signals of danger, and had given at all times false re-
ports of their movements to the authorities. Battesti was
according tried, and, for the first time since the establish-
ment of trial by juryin Corsica, a prisoner was condemned
for furnishing provisions and supplying news to robbers.
Previous to this verdict, such was the apprehension of the
bandits, that parties so accused were invariably acquitted.
Since the condemnation of Battesti a part of the band has
been taken, the remainder dispersed, and security has !gain
reigned in the places where pillage bad been so long existing.