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

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Times.)

The charge delivered by the Chief Justice Tinda
on Tuesday last to the Grand Jury of Monmouthshire,
on opening the business of the Special Commission, will
have called up in every humane mind emotions, not only
of deep alarm for the spirit which it proves to exist
amongst such members of her Majesty's subjects, but of
extreme sorrow and compassion for that large portion
of the labouring population which has become the dupe
and instrument of wicked men, professing at least no
object but the frightful and insane one of subverting
the laws by open violence, and sacrificing the lives of
all their fellow-subjects who should venture to protect
the rights of property against their fury, and to pre-
serve the public peace. It would be presumption in
us to utter a word of commentary upon the exposition
of the law addressed by the Chief Justice to his audi-
tors, any further than to describe it as being at
.once
humane and lucid. Nor can any man with a spark of
Christian charity to guide him fail to concur with the
Learned Judge in his suggestion, so far at least that one
remedy for a state of " mind and feeling so unhealthy and
diseased, and infecting so large a portion of the commu-
nity," as that which has displayed itself in the perpe-
tration of the late systematic and dreadful atrocities,
would be the diffusion " amongst the rising generation
of the benefits of religious instruction, and of a sound
religious education, so that as the younger part of the
community advance to manhood, they may feel the
conviction of the wholesome truth, that they are bound
to yield obedience to the laws of their country, not from
the terror only which the law inspires, but from a much
higher and more binding motive—the fear of the Al-
mighty—and from the thorough belief that the powers
which be„are ordained of God ;" meaning thereby the
gi•eci,(lnniinmental powers of law, and order, and con-
stitUtedjatitbority—the bonds of peace, and guardians
of society.; If ever there was a counsel offered to man-
kind vliicli d, mended their highest reverence, it was
this inculcated by the venerable judge. If ever there
was a nation, or a period in
,the history of that nation
which called aloud for religious instruction to all
classes, as the best and only fountain whence can be drawn
the inestimable knowledge of their social, including their
political duties, it is the British nation, and the hour at
which the Judge's charge has been delivered. We ap-
pearto any observant, reflecting, and dispassionate man,
whether he recollects a time throughout his whole ex-
perience at which it was the practice for vast bodies of
Englishmen to clamour so wildly or to strive so fiercely
for the attainment of power in one shape or other un-
der the fancied name of "right," and to be so utterly
regardless of their real duties. The war cry of the age
is, " I want more power." But " power " means
power over some other person or class of persons.
He, therefore, who insists on acquiring any power
which the law does not at present grant him, and
insists on that power as his " right," avows, in fact,
that he feels himself an oppressed man, because,
whether his name be John Frost or Daniel O'Con-
nell, he cannot exercise over one or more of his
neighbours some greater coercion or constraint than he
now can bring to bear upon those neighbours. He
cares not one straw for the right of other men to resist
him in his attack upon their privileges or possessions.
He calls them monopolists, or oligarchs, or tyrants, be-
cause they seek to hold what they have. But he styles
himself a " Reformer," for no better reason than that
he spends his life in endeavouring to encroach upon
the lawful vested rights and possessions of his fellow-
subjects. We say, therefore, that the topic and the
time, and the public to which he addresses himself,
have one and all been chosen with admirable sense and
judgment by Chief Justice Tindal, because he goes to
the root of the prevalent vice of this generation--a
selfish grasping after new powers, and a callous
blindness to those moral obligations which in-
struct us to employ the powers already bestowed
upon us for the good of others as well as of ourselves.
Is there any one particle of conscientious integrity in
Mr. Daniel O'Connell, who has first inveigled, then
pushed on, myriads of- worse than untaught Papists
under his dominion, to bellow and batter down all
lawful obstacles in the way of his and their march to
what he designates as right, but which is merely
" power !" He roars out that lie and his Burnish
brethren are slaves to England, and, when we come to
examine his reason, it is simply because they are not
tyrants, paramount over England. Could this bad man
have Practised so successfully a fraud so monstrous over
the hearts and understandings of his unhappy country-
men, if the mind of the ignorant rabble had not been
to the full as " unhealthy and diseased" as that of the
Welch multitude of Monmouth and Glamorgan, so well
described by the venerable Judge? It is the want
of moral and religious instruction which has subjec-
ted the Popish Ant i-Saxons throughout England
to the disciplined organization imposed upon
them by O'Connell, writ:, cries for freedom, but
means ascendancy over Protestants, and the power of
committing unlimited and unpunished wrong. It is
brutish ignorance of their most sacred duties which has
enabled the leaders of the rioters to engage in their con-
spiracy against the state of England—the unfortunate
inhabitants of the iron mountains. When they and their
victims yell for their "rights," they expound the word
" rights" by unsparing " confiscations." We say with
the Chief Justice, that such a spectacle moves our deep
compassion. We say further, that it fills us with the
most grievous apprehension, lest the spread of Chartism
should become inevitable and uncontrollable, and the Nor-
reanbyreign be even more fatal here thanin Ireland,where
the priesthood, when it suited them, could exercise a re-
straining, as well as an impelling force, which has no pa-
rallel in this country. There are rumours much circulated
of a scheme on the part of Ministers for truckling, asis their
cri-
minal wor.'!, to t.ri
na yjwu which
them coossde
ends
nd ofsof applying t
ed t law,
ria I
ourtr.g upon des
jurisprudence to proper andthrov
con-
viction, while their own alVfitit9 for a base popularity,
which has been one great pause of the mischief, is to
gorge itself on the exultation of their Chartist accom.
plicea in some general gaol delivery, after the old Nor-
manby fashion. The Queen's marriage, it is rumoured,
is to be hurried on in ore!, r to afford an occasion for an
amnesty. If so, the open rioters in the streets of New-
port are not the only traitors tP the Qum. Thos9 Qf
higher rank, the whole tendency of whose admlnslstration
has been to encourage a contempt for the institutions of
l n
the Monarchy, will then have crowned their work, and
shown a characteristic fellow feeling for their
pupils.
(From the Morning Advlrtiser.)
This day fire weeks Parliament will re-assemble, On
that day will commence a Session, the proceedings of
Fdliieh, we verily believe, will surpass in importance
esery
gper
set";
()i previous t 89 e sbsei on
broughtsine
the
forward Rev
areoutio ont
Onflly6nBuB:

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