The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-20 00:00:00

as their suffering workmen. It is, however, with
the latter that we have principally to do, and we
have shown that the Corn-law, by limiting the
supply of food, and so throwing the competition
who should obtain it on the side of the manufac-
turing labourers, has ever since the peace inflicted
an indelible injury on the workmen, and has con-
stantly tended to deteriorate their condition. The
hypocritical Tories, however, now pretend that
they wish to keep the supply of food limited for the
interest of those who have to buy it by their
labour.

impiety of a Bishop's presuming to impart the
Holy Ghost, and thus arrogating to himself the
prerogative of the Supreme. It has been matter of
surprise, observes he, to many—
_ _ _

In another part of our Journal appears a letter
from a Manchester Chartist, correcting a state-
ment of ours, and showing that the working classes
feel a vast deal of sympathy with Mr. FROST. We
regret to learn it, for, in our opinion, neither his recent
alleged designs nor his conduct, so far as they have
been developed, deserve sympathy ; and one or two
more such leaders would bring immense suffering
on all classes. We cordially approve, indeed, of
the wish of the Chartists to save him from death,
should that be his sentence, and we heartily
sympathise with them in all their legal, quiet
exertions to obtain that end. We must,
however, warn them that anything in the
shape of violent language, any threats, any
approximation to sedition, will compel the Minis-
ters, from a sense of duty and a feeling of honour,
rigorously to carry the law into execution. Wish-
ing most earnestly that the beginning of our young
and Lady SOVEREIGN'S reign should not be
stained with blood on account of a political offence,
we earnestly hope that the Chartists will every-
where abstain from the use of any language, or
from making any demonstration, which may injure
Mr. FROST. At the same time it has been stated
to us, that at some meetings language has been
used which can have none but an unfavourable
effect. It is added, and we mention the asser-
tion without placing much reliance upon it, but
in order to put the authorities on their guard,
that no inconsiderable number of persons are
armed, or arming, at Manchester and other towns.
We believe, however, that at the present moment
the authorities are every where vigilant, and that all
attempts to disturb the public peace will end in the
certain destruction of those who make the attempt•

" That the good sense and moral: probity of the ec-
clesiastical rulers of this country, has not, ere this, led
them to see the inconsistency, and to attempt the re-
formation of that part of the Ordination Service which
ascribes to men the exercise of prerogatives which be-
long only to God, and to which no man, nor body of
men, can pretend, without incurring the guilt of blas-
phemy. What powers your Lordship, and your col-
leagues in office, may possess in the distribution
of the Church patrimony, I presume you can never
seriously imagine, for one moment, that you have
the same power to communicate the Holy Ghost to
whomsoever you please. And if not, as must be con-
fessed by every honest and enlightened mind, why ad-
minister a form of words so awfully delusive in their ap-
plication, and which show the dreadful length of impiety
to which the rulers of the Church will go in practising
a religious delusion to keep up their episcopal dignity.
The Pope, with his Bishops, arrogate to themselves the
power of giving the Holy Ghost, and of forgiving men
their sins, and have converted this pretended plenary
dispensation of theirs into a source of profitable traffic.
The Bishops of the Protestant Church of England
claim the same high prerogatives. But on what scrip-
tural grounds do they found their claim ? The Church
of Rome never instituted this proud pretension till
after the twelfth century, when it was set up with many
other arrogant claims, amidst the wildest superstitions
of the darkest age. That such an extravagant preten-
sion as this, assumed by the Popes in all the pride and
wantonness of their power, should be transferred from
a Roman Pontifical to grace a Protestant Liturgy, and
be acted upon by the Bishops of a reformed church in
the nineteenth century! shows the blind attachment

that exists to forms and opinions however repugnant
they are to the sober dictates of reason, or to the solemn
determinations of divine revelation. Whatever senti-
ments the mitred clergy may entertain when laying their
hands upon the head of the probationer for holy orders,
and saying, " RECEIVE THE HOLT Gi105T"......4, whose
sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose
sins thou dost retain, they are retained ;" there is no
one in this enlightened age, whose mind is freed from
the slavish dogmas of the Romish schools, that believes
in this pretended communication of divine gifts and
powers."

About a twelvemonth ago it was our pleasant
duty to speak in terms of great praise of a short,
direct, pithy speech against the Corn-laws, delivered
by Mr. ADAM BLACK, a most respectable and
well•known bookseller of Edinburgh. With equal
pleasure we can now give equal praise to the ener-
getic, straightforward, racy speech he delivered at
the Edinburgh meeting in behalf of THOROGOOD,
as reported in our Paper yesterday. Cordially do
we echo his condemnation of ecclesiastical usurpa-
tion, and his abhorrence of oppression committed
in the name of the Gospel of Peace. We do not
think it necessary to reproduce here any portion of
his speech, having so lately published it entire, but
we cannot refrain from thus recording our opinion.
We are well pleased to see respectable citizens
like Mr. BLACK and Mr. AYTOUN, giving expres-
sion to such an honest indignation against the con-
duct of the State priesthood. We have ourselves
expressed similar sentiments, but the apparently
hearty and earnest zeal of the apostate and noto-
rious Times, for opposite parties and opposite
principles, as suits the purpose of party or of
trade, has, we are well aware, thrown much
doubt on the sincerity of all Newspaper writing,
and probably made our remarks on the subject be
regarded as dictated by a commercial or party
spirit. We are glad, therefore, to see them
echoed by independent men, removed from any
such suspicion. It both gives us confidence in our
opinions and assures us that they will obtain the
confidence of the public. That the sincerity of
writers for the Daily Press should be doubted is,
in the present state of the community, very much
to be regretted, but it is, we are convinced, the
necessary consequence of such apostacy as that of
the Tinzes, which has done much to degrade the
Newspaper Press and destroy its influence.

" The Bishop of EXETER as he is, and as he
ought to be," is the title of a little pamphlet
which has just been published by Mr. SOUTH-
GATE. The author adopts the epistolary form,
and addresses " Old TOBY" in a very free-and-
easy style, telling him many plain truths, which it
would be greatly for the benefit of his " soul's
health" to lay to heart. He reminds him of the
prominent and active part he has taken in uphold-
ing the countless abuses and corruptions of the
Church of England, although he swore at his ordi-
nation that he was inwardly moved by the HOLY
GHOST to take upon him this office and ministra-
tion " to serve GOD, for the purpose of promoting
his glory, and the edifying his people."

The author, following up the point here started,
proceeds to argue that were the Holy Ghost really
communicated by the Bishops, the conduct of the
persons who are supposed to receive the heavenly
gift, would be somewhat different from what it is ;
but as the clergy, by their behaviour, clearly show
that is utterly impossible that they can have any
dealings with the Spirit of GoD, that part of the
ceremony alluded to cannot be considered in any
other light than that of a religious juggle :

"If Popish or Protestant Bishops, by laying on o
hands, do give the Holy Ghost, they must either im
part it from the abundant measure of this gift, treasured
up in themselves, or by an authority they have to call it
down from heaven at the time of ordination ; in either
case, the communication, if real, would be attended with
some demonstrative proof of its presence, like as it was
in the days of the Apostles ; and we should certainly see
it manifesting its indwelling influences by the spiritual
gifts, the divine graces, or the miraculous powers with
which it endued its subjects. But where, I ask, my Lord,
are the exhibitions of His power, in the great body of the
clergy, at the present day, who are more intent upon the
pleasures of the world than they are upon the duties of
their office ? Your Lordship, I think, will conclude
with those who judge of facts by their evidences, that it
would require all the blind credulity of that dark and
wonder-working age, which gave rise to the cere-
mony of the stirrup and the slipper, to believe that
those reverend gentlemen are filled with the Holy
Ghost, who, instead of ministering to the Church of
God in holy things, are making the rich revenues of the
Church minister to their unholy lives ;—or that they
have the power to forgive or retain sins of the people,
when they are so accursedly laden with their own trans-
gressions.
" The Ordination Service, in this respect, teaches the
people to believe a lie, and authorizes the priesthood to
practise an imposture--an imposture, too, of a most
awful nature, since it represents the Holy Ghost as
calling and qualifying men to offices in the Church, which
they never fulfil, and giving them powers to fleece the
people, that they may gratify the vain desires of an
earthly mind.
To affirm that such men have received the Holy
Ghost, and are officiating in the Church under His di-
rection, is to father upon Him the sins of your own body,
and to make Him a party concerned in all the sinecures,
pluralities, non-residences, and other scandalous pro-
ceedings, which stain, with so deep a guht, the cha-
racter of the Church of England. My Lord, for the
sake of maintaining the honour of the Christian
religion, and of silencing the captious objections of
blaspheming infidels, those which ascribe to fallible
men a power which belongs only to the Most High God,
ought at once to be obliterated from the ritua► of a
church that professes to be constituted upon the prin-
ciples of the Reformation."
The neglect of their duties by the Clergy is
severely and justly animadverted upon in the fol-
lowing passage, with which we must conclude our
extracts :
" My Lord, in conclusion, permit me to say, that if
we look into those parts of the Empire where the spirit
of disaffection and outrage are found most to prevail,
we shall see that they are characterised by a deficiency
either in the method or the measure of clerical instruc-
tion. Circumstances of deep misery and want, pressing
upon minds untutored by the Gospel to bear adversity,
and which are strongly excited by passions that have
never felt the check of an enlightened conscience, may
be expected to produce tumultuous expressions of indig-
nation among the lower orders. But in most in-
stances, where the spirit of murmur has burst
forth into a flame of rebellion, the evil is to
be traced to the conduct of an inefficient clergy who,
though loud in their praise of Church and State, are
shamefully remiss in the duties they owe to that autho-
rity by which they are maintained and fed. The clergy
have lost their influence over the people, and the people
have lost their respect for the clergy. Though some
may be disposed to question the truth of these observa-
tions, they certainly gather a confirmation from the feel-
ings of hostility so generally expressed against the priest-
hood of modern times, and would, I fear, meet with a
practical proof, were any calamitous events, of a poli-
tical nature, to break out in this country. To guard
against such events is the wisdom of all—more espe-
cially is it the duty of those who sustain the clerical
office.
" Yet, my Lord, it is impossible to view the present
restless and discontented state of the nations, without
feeling a firm conviction, that certain revolutionary
principles are extensively at work, which threaten, ere
long, to bring the two extreme classes of society into a
state of dreadful collision. Turn where you will, the
kingdoms of the earth are heard to groan beneath the
weight of grievances too heavy to be endured ; and to de-
nounce the subversion of those arbitrary dominions,
which, through an excess of ambit:on, have been dead
to the cries of distress, as well as to the dictates of
reason. Might, in too many instances, has overcome
right ; and a general abuse of power has weakened, in
all directions, those ties which, by binding the different
orders of the community in a unity of interests, give
security to the institutions, and stability to the Govern-
ment of a country. When the great body of the people
look upon the priesthood and the aristocracy of a na-
tion as the chief causes of the evils they suffer ; and
when the insolent authority and insatiable monopoly
of wealth on the part of the one, have given just ground
to the conclusions formed by the other ; it would be no
surprising thing, in the ordinary course of events, should
years spent in fruitless murmurings give rise to some
rash and dangerous enterprise, the last sad effort of
despair; or that the hope of establishing a more equi-
table order of things should at length induce the nations
of Europe to throw off the yoke of obedience with their
respect for hereditary dignitaries."
These are matters for serious consideration both
by the Clergy and the Aristocracy. No reasonable
man can shut his eyes to the dangers which are
accumulating around us, nor to the evidence which
every hour is bringing forth, that those dangers
spring from the unjust exercise of power on the
part of those classes of the community. The Church
has carried its grasping, arbitrary, and oppressive
spirit to such a pitch that it is regarded as a nuisance
by the great mass of the people ; and the aristocracy,
by the gross selfishness which it has displayed in its
legislative capacity, has proved to the millions that
their interests have little or no share of its consi-
deration. If some relaxation of this one-sided sys-
tem of legislation be not speedily manifested by
our rulers, and something like fair play given to the
working classes ; if industry shall continue to be
paralyzed, and the millions starved by our legisla-
tors for no other purpose than that they, the legis-
lators, may put a little more money into their own
pockets, who that reflects on what is daily passing
before his eyes can doubt that the millions will
take the remedy into their own hands.

" You have denied," he remarks, " as a Legislator,
that the abuses which attach to the worship and disci-
pline of the Church over which you preside, have at-
tracted the eye of public attention, or that they call
for the plastic hand of a reforming genius. You have
boldly affirmed that the regulation of the affairs of the
Church is not a proper subject for Parliamentary inter-
ference. You have resolutely opposed yourself to the
axiom that popular power is increasing: thus practically
refusing to allow that, in the exact proportion as know-
ledge itself is extended, so the various species of power
arising from its extension are capable of being brought
into operation against, or proving fatal to the systematic
malversations of a time-serving priesthood. Having
done all this, you have necessarily laid yourself open to
a candid examination of the principles upon which your
conduct has been regulated ; nor, in the course of such
an inquiry ought it to be forgotten that, as a public
servant, the people have an indubitable right to can-
vass and decide upon your actions, in the prominent
situation you occupy in that institution, the support of
which the State has thought proper to impose upon
them."

The people unquestionably possess this right,
and we scarcely need inform the Bishop that they
are exercising it every day, and that not in the most
ceremonious manner. After some pretty sharp
strokes at the Right Reverend TORY'S personal
conduct and character, and quoting St. Paul's de-
scription of a Bishop, in which we cannot recog-
nise any likeness to his apostolical successor, the
author returns to the extravagant doctrine advocated
by his Eminence of EXETER, namely, that the
State has no power to interfere in any matters in
which the Church is concerned. On this subject,
we find the following just observations :

" The powers, the prerogatives, and the revenues,
with which the Church of England is invested, were
never received by transmission from Christ and his
Apostles ; but have been derived from the legislative
enactments of British kings and senators, who have en-
riched the Church at the expense of her purity.
" It must surely be admitted, my Lord, that the arm
which created the ecclesiastical machinery of this
country, can, if need be, as easily destroy it. It is only
for the Queen and the Parliament to resolve that there
is no further necessity for this ostentatious display of
ecclesiastical pomp to secure the stability, or to main-
tain the dignity of the empire, and away go the thrones,
the principalities, the powers, and the resources of the
Church—

1 Then might ye see,
Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers tost
And flutter'd into rags ; then reliques, beads,
Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,
The sport of winds; all these upwhirl'd aloft,
Fly o'er the backside of the world, far off,
Into a limbo large and broad, since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown.'
" That the State has a power to determine upon such
an appropriation of the Ecclesiastical revenues, as shall
be most conducive to the general welfare of the nation,
is a position that cannot, I think, consistently de denied
by any who maintain the supremacy of the Government."
To doubt that the State possesses this power, or
rather this right, is not a little absurd on the part
of the Bishops and other Churchmen, for it is in
fact to doubt their own title to their possessions,
inasmuch as it was solely through the exercise of
this power by the State that the Catholics were
ousted, and the present occupants put into their
places.
The writer then touches up Old Toby on the

Madrid Papers of the 11th inst. have been re-
ceived, but bring no news of interest. The capital
was tranquil. A report had reached ESPARTERO'S
head-quarters, that CABRERA had consented to the
release of all his prisoners, he having no more rations

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, ISM.

to give them. Every person supposed that they
would have been shot. In the Eco cl' Arra-
gon of the 13th instant we find the fol-
lowing political manifesto addressed by the chief
of ESPARTERO'S Staff to that Journal, which at
once settles the question about the General-in-
Chief's alleged participation in the Cabinet Coun-
cils, recommending the dissolution of the Cortes.
It does honour to ESPARTERO'S patriotism

" Sir—The Eco del Conzercio of the 2d, states that
the Ministers were spreading the rumour that the Duke
de la Vittoria had advised the illegalities which they
wished to commit, and that he was preparing to sustain
them by force. The Duke de la Vittoria deplores, as
every good and loyal Spaniard must do, the animosity of
party spirit which he regrets to see is again breaking
out, at a time when he hoped a grand reconciliation
would have been effected. He had a right to think
so, after the details of the celebrated sitting of Oc-
tober 7. He then rejoiced in embracing at Bergara
those who had formerly opposed his course ; and, per-
suaded that this spirit of reconciliation had also presided
at that sitting of Congress, and that henceforth every
question would be arranged in the same spirit of har-
mony ; he hoped that all would divest themselves of all
party feeling, and that the conduct of Ministers would
have been dictated by the force of circumstances,
which deprive the Constitution of none of its moral
power when the results correspond with excep-
tional measures, when principles remain untouched,
and these acts meet with the approbation of
the legislative bodies. On the other hand, his Excel-
lency had hoped that several useless and frivolous pro-
jects would have either been withdrawn or modified.
This is merely the expression of his wishes, and implies
no censure on either Deputies or Ministers. For the
Duke of Vittoria does not interfere with what does not
concern him, and he wishes the people not to believe
that he has ever interfered in State matters. As far as
regards his private opinion, he hoped that the Cortes
would not have been dissolved, as be thought that they
might have coincided with Ministers ; that he has never
exercised any sort of influence on the dismissals, which
he thinks will be highly prejudicial to the State ; and
that he has never offered to support by force any acts
which he thinks are hostile to the Constitution of 1837,
the throne of Isabella, or the Regency of her august
mother. Firm to his principles, a warm defender of, na-
tional independence, and all that he deems sacred, he
trusts that these principles will never be attacked by
those who endeavour 'to turn aside the army from its
chief object, which is to destroy its armed enemies, who
still retard the general pacification, which would have
placed a bridle on passions and partial interests.
" I must request the insertion of this manifestation in
your excellent journal, and that you will receive the
assurances, &c.

"FRANCISCO LINAGE."

On the Madrid Exchange on the 11th inst. fifty-six
bargains in the New Fives, to the amount of 28,200,000
reals, were transacted, six of which were for Cash at
271 and 27 1-16, and the others for time at 29 for sixty
days. On the Debt without interest, ancient coupons,
three bargains were done at 91 for sixty days, and in
the New at 5 11-16 for fifty-nine days.

Letters from Constantinople, of the 27th ult.,
from Alexandria of the same date, and from Smyrna
of the 29th, have been received. The Oriental
question is stated in them all to have made no pro-
gress of late. Prince DE JOINVILLE has been
recalled from the East, to be present at the
opening of the French Chambers. M. ZA-
GRAPHOS, the Greek Foreign Minister, arrived
on the 24th at Constantinople, charged with
a complimentary mission from King OTHO to the
the young SULTAN on his accession. His recep-
tion was most flattering. The arrival of the widow
of one of MEHEMET ALIAS grandsons at the
Porte was supposed not unconnected with a poli-
tical object. The substance of the news from Alex-
andria and Syria will be found in another part of
The Sun. We are happy to state that trade was
active, and foreign goods in much demand at Con-
stantinople.

The Paris Journals of Wednesday, the whole of
which we have received, publish the following news
from French Africa :

" ALCHERS, DEC. 13.
" TOULON, DEC. 16.
" MARSHAL VALLEE TO THE MINISTER or WAR.
" No serious combat has taken place in the province
of Algiers. Hostilities have not commenced LI Oran.
The province of Constantine is perfectly tranquil."
This intelligence is favourable, inasmuch as it
sets at rest the vaunting threat of the EMIR
about attacking Algiers on the 10th instant.
Marshal VALLEE has now little to fear, as
reinforcements have reached him in sufficient
number to enable him to act on the
offensive. Besides the troops already embarked,
300 men of the 17th Regiment of the line left
Marseilles on the 12th, to embark for Africa. Se-
veral vessels were then at that port freighted for the
conveyance of troops, horses, and military stores for
Algiers. All the regiments in garrison in the
South of France have been ordered to furnish each
three hundred picked men for the African service.
The Report read at the secret sitting of the
Court of Peers on Monday, details some new facts
connected with the secret Societies des Families
and des Saisons. It appears that they collected
funds for the defence of all persons accused of poli-
tical crimes, and for the support of their families
during their imprisonment. Out of these funds the
Moniteur Republicain was partly supported. In the
course of 18 months 14,000 francs were collected, a
fact which demonstrates how widely they must have
spread, as the contributors, with very few excep-
tions, were all persons in the humblest walks of
life. We shall take another opportunity of enter-
ing into some details respecting this document.
The squabble between the French and English
Captains at Port Louis, of which we gave an
account in The Sun of Tuesday, is the subject :of
a long and hostile article in the Temps of Wednes-
day. There is a party in France quite as mad
for international bloodshed as the Tory faction
here. These very choleric persons would go to
war for the blowing of the wind from a northern or
southern point of the compass. We quote the
article from the Temps, not for the purpose of
stirring up bad blood, but in order to show
that acts which the Tories represent as humiliat-
ing to the honour of this country, are frequently re-
garded in an opposite light by our neighbours. As
regards the question now in dispute we trust the
Governments of both countries will have the good
sense to settle it quietly, and that care will be taken
to prevent, as far as possible, such misunderstand-
ings for the time to come. The following is the
article from the Temps :

" On the 7th of September her Britannic Majesty's
ship Greenlaw was at anchor by the side of a French
brig and schooner, the Lancier and the Isere, both of
which were covered with flags. Captain Driver, of the
Greenlaw, saw in the disposition of these flags an outrage
upon the British colours. He did not demand expla-
nations, but hoisted the tri-colour flag in a way implying
an insult to it. The officer commanding the Isere, in
the absence of his captain, demanded reparation, al-
leging that the arrapgement of flags complained of was
purely accidental. Captain Driver accepted the
challenge at first, but thought fit to decline after-
wards meeting any save his equal in rank, the captain
of the French vessel. The circumstances being stated
to the Governor of the island, he obliged the English
captain to make excuses, and to hoist the tri-colour flag
twice on his mast top, by way of reparation. Six days
after, the Governor having reason to believe that the
first insult of the flags was intentional on the part of
the French, demanded reparation. The French re-
fused, pleading that their doing so would be admitting
theirintention to insult, which they denied. Never-
theless, the French Captain offered to hoist the British
flag at his mizzen on the day of his departure, and salute
it with twenty-one guns. The offer was rejected, and
menaces were made to fire on the French vessel, if it
refused to make the same amende that the British ves-
sels had done. Still the French refused. The British
Governor then published an order, forbidding any com-
munication between the French vessels and the shore,
except such as werr necessary for the service of his
French Majesty ; this being occasioned (said the order)
by the refusal of the French Commandant to make the
usual demonstration to prove that he did not intend to
offend by the disrespectful manner in which the British
colours were hoisted on board the Isere on the 7th of
September.
This order was published on the 18th. M. de
Tinan, the French Commandant, had landed at one
o'clock of that day, ignorant of the order, which had
not yet been notified. He was about to return at ten
at night, when he was arrested, and brought to the
guard-house. Major Wilson, who Commanded there,
repaired to the Governor, and was not received, and
then to Colonel Power, who said he could not apply to
his Excellency till next morning, till when M. de Tinan