The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-22 00:00:00

RCfI 17.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
„...._._.

Are there no means of reaching those individuals
who abuse the confidence reposed in then by the
ignorant and unsuspecting inhabitants of the agricul-
tural districts ? From all quarters we have received
accounts of the disreputable conduct of parsons and
their creatures, who have not scrupled to obtain sig-
natures to petitions against the abolition of Church-
rates by
.the most culpable misrepresentations. On
this subject a petition was last night presented in •the
Lords by Lord Brougham from the parishioners of
Wheatley, in Oxfordshire, expressing " their indigna-
tion at the attempts now making to procure signa-
tures to petitions in support of Church-rates, by per-
sons representing that the abolition of those rates
would be the means of the Churches falling into de-
cay. Several persons who had been so deceived had
been induced to sign petitions in favour of Church-
rates. Having signed these counter-petitions, and
then discovering the manner in which they had been
deceived, some of them immediately signed the
present petition." We yesterday received a let•
ter from a magistrate of Yorkshire, in which
he states—" The day before yesterday my parish
schoolmaster was applied to by the par Son to carry
round a petition for signature amongst the parishioners
against the abolition of Church-rates, and previous to
coining to me he had procured thirteen names, all of •
whom I felt convinced never would have signed had
they properly understood it. I, therefore, immediately
went to them myself, taking the parson's petition in ,
my hand; and a contrary one, which I hastily drew up,
in -support of the Bill. As soon as I explained to
them the true objects of the Bill, every one of them
declared they had been deceived, and hoped they might
withdraw their names and sign the other petition, which
I let them do. They were told that the Bill, if passed,
would leave all the Churches to go to ruin and to
tumble down ; and, moreover, that a great numoor
of
appointments had to be made
.for thw management of
the Church lands, the same as were attached to tlie
new Poor-law Unions, and that they would all be paid
out of the Poor-rates !! ! This misrepresentation the
parsons well knew was very likely to make a lively im-
pression on the common people, who are very generally
hostile to the Poor-law Unions, and the machinery
of them." What the Bishop of Llandaff repeated
last night may be quite true, " that when petitioners
came before their Lordships for the redress of
grievances, the lower those petitioners were in society,
the humbler and the more helpless they were, the greater
claim had they on their Lordships' attention." But it
becomes of importance to distinguish between griev-
ances really felt by humble petitioners, and opinions,
not formed by themselves, but suggested by others, of
the consequences to which certain measures of which
the petitioners in question are necessarily wholly igno-
rant will lead. is justly objected, for instance, to
mobocracy, that the multitude are blind instruments in
the hands of one or two daring individuals. At the
beginning of the Feench Revolution the peasantry
were summoned by the watchword of " Peace to the
cottage, and war to the palace," to set fire to the cha.
leans of the gentry, and the flames of these mansions
bore testimony to the ready credence obtained by those
who preached- that the existence of the rich was the
great obstacle to the comfort of the poor. If the
parsons, in their respective parishes, tell their igno-
rant and credulous flocks that Ministers intended
to demolish the Churches, and by such means
induce them to sign petitions against the aboli-
tion of Churchsrates, these petitions do not ex-
press the opinions of those who subscribe them,
or set their marks to them, but opinions put into their
mouths by the parties who lend themselves to the fraud
upon Parliament. If a soeiety in London were to
send emissaries to different parts of the country for
the purpose of persuading the Dissenters that the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lon-
don, and other Bishops, had subscribed a large sum
to be employed in blowing up with gunpowder the
different Dissenting chapels at the time they were most
crowded, and that they ought to petition for the removal
of' Bishops from the House of Lords, how would their
spiritual Lordships relish a declaration h' some Peer
that " the petitioners came before their Lordships for •
the redress of grievances, and that the lower these pe•
titioners were in society, the humbler and the more
helpless they were, the greater Claim they had on their
Lordships' attention?" Would not some Right Reve-
rend Father in God give vent to his indignation by
inveighing loudly against those who had been guilty
of the crime of ()eluding a large class of his Majes
ty's subjects, and call on the House to resent so foul an
attempt to calumniate the spiritual Peers by an abuse
of the right of petitioning ? But if two or three
Bishops in conclave in London send 'forth instructions
to the clergy, to misrepresent to their parishioners the
object of the Ministerial measure for the abolition of
Church-rates—to tell them that it is intended. to allow
the Churches to go to ruin—to plough up the Church-
yards ; and if; by means of these representations by
which his Majesty's Ministers are foully calumniated,
petitions are numerously subscribed, in what light are
we to view the authors of this plot, and the instru-
ments whom, by an abuse of their authority, they
persuade to give effect to it ? Parliament ought to
take some steps to vindicate its authority, that the
gross misconduct of the clergy on this occasion may
not be drawn into precedent. The grievances of the
poor are as much entitled to the attention of Par-
liament as the grievances of the rich ; but the valu-
able right of petitioning ought not to be abused as
it has been in this case. In proportion as the right is
valuable ought the Legislature to resent the arts of mis-
representation, by which the people are led into error,
and approach Parliament under erroneous impres-
sions. "It was a remarkable circumstance," said the
Bishop of Llandatf, " that petitions against the abo-
lition of Church-rates were pouring in daily from the
rural parishes. 'ln that district with which he was
more intimately connected, he knew one county from
every rural parish of which a petition had been sent
in favour of the continuance of Church-rates ; and in
every other county of the same district the rural pa-
rishes, with few exceptions, had drawn up similar
ia uios'ne s
tihs er ay arey
are i n
pouringa
a for rdi the
fre iri
petitions." It would have been more remarkable if
the parsons had sent up from these rural parishes pe-
t
es
daily from) oe
distances
s from
Cr
hr
rural t
Church-rates.
le111).-ariraliest eh°s The
petitionsent
metro-
polis, and of different dimensions, so that they must
sbe-
be either poured in daily, or the presentation must be
delayed till they are all received according- to order.
We presume no Right Reverend Father in God had
any more doubt of receiving petitions from nearly all
the rural parishes of his diocese, than he had that
his dinner would be prepared by his cook and served
up to him at table. Noble Lords are fond just now of
the miraculous. The Duke of Rutland was quite
surprised that the parishes in his neighbourhood,
which had remained unagitated during the discussions
of the Reform Bill, should be quite agitated on the
subject of Church-rates ! His Grace had better con-
sult Nixon's Prophecies, to see whether this remark-
able circumstance had been foretold. The Tories are
always in raptures when they can exhibit multitudes
under the influence of delusion. They are not aware
that without intending it they are of great service to
the good cause. We are far from wishing to excuse
the culpable misrepresentations to which recourse has
been had to obtain these petitions ; but it required such
an exhibition to satisfy those who.wish to diffuse in-
struction among the people, that throughout the agri-
cultural distriots of England the population, with few
exceptions,
are in 4 state of the grossest ignorance.
The schbolthaster is abroad, it is true, but he lingers
about towns, and seems loth to encounter the inhes
ces
hitants of the country. There sio S,nsple. funds for the
purpose of instruOug peasantry ; bus they have in
too man i4t4u
been ltd hold ofb/ the Tor,i axis.

tocracy, •who are now availing themselves of the cre•
dulity winch is the fruit of the ignorance caused kr
their own rapacity.—.-Morning Chronicle.
In the debate which followed Lord Nlahon's int, -
resting speech upon the relations between Great Bri
min, or rather between 'Lord Viscount Pahrh-rston and
the belligerent parties in Spain some 10 or 12 days
since, Sir It. Peel spoke, we are sure, the feeling o
the great body of Conservatives throughout this coun-
try, when he disavowed all sympathy with Don Car-
los, and declared that " he did not see ally one British
object which -could be gained by the success of that
pretender to the Spanish crown. Such is our own sen-
timent on the question, save only that there is no ima-
ginable termination of the civil war now raging in the
northern provinces of the Peninsula which must not be
hailed as in one respect a blessing to this country, by
releasing her unfortunate subjects 'from the state of un-
profitable wretchedness to which a vain, stupid; and
heartless Minister has exposed them, and by withdraw-
ing the flag of England from a contest, in the disgrace
of which it has too deeply shared, notwithstanding that
the partnership has been carried on under a heap of dis-
guises acrd
unprincipl
to. lelsodliNi,valste:tiediir;cauioskgweewasirwadtlibihytiinsecoiloor
:Eli.
elo(tsiiiillereeevrieeiturofotiiirAmale;ticoli
implicate
s.rteatelEteoollnu,anrsnicteosi
and his
the dishonour attaching to the Government which se-
duced them into their preatuat humiliating service--a
oEttrhtwhat:zes,(i
e el
nal
(jail;
filiooor
‘eratv. diiiiietoisovseefhlrgfal
esilitpihslteeleslhdi eosspooe on
snr
authatncdh
public betrayed thorn,
s
functionarynta,aonntßliOadttf,
• service wherein they are disavowed by those who have
h
feEnoelilnigl
besides
of so
helpless
substantiallyeo un t country-
men,
ctliNl,atheri
eeetsivileillrostEaoinfl
saw
earvatrh
os°lou lets,swahrei
iit)iriasticpault,
tt
oh
at he
gind is at war or not ? It is now affirmed
in all the accounts MIA have reached this country
from the westward ,of tie Pyrenees, that not only
guns, rockets, and warlike stores from the Royal
arsenals of Great Britain have formed the bulk of the
Military materials with which the corps of Evans has
recently marched upon its inland enterprise of an
attack upon Hernani, in expected combination with a
force from Pampeluna, which is distant near fifty
miles from the sea, but that a corps of British artillery,
and a battalion of the Royal Marines of England, ac-
companied Evans in that disastrous expedition, and
covered his retreat to St. Sebastian. Now, let us ask,
is this a species of movement which comes within the
letter or spirit Of the Quadruple Alliance ? Was Eng-
land bound—and, if not bound, was she in any sense
authorized—to
.join her forces with the armies of either
belligerent in the civil war of Spain, other than her
maritimeArees, and for objects confined to the sea
coast of those provinces which constituted the seat of
war ? This now becomes a serious national question—
serious in its principle, because the acts of Lord Pal-
merston amount to an unlimited intermeddling with
all the occurrences of a civil war, carried on between
two parties exclusively Spanish for the succession to
the Crown—serious m its contingent consequences,
because there would be no shadow of pretence on the
part of England for complaining if two or three other
Governments followed her example, by despatching
fleets and armies to the succour of Don Carlos, and
thus, by the gradual increase of such reinforcements,
producing what Would he really nothing less than a
general war among the Powers of Europe, under the
mask of auxiliary treaties. But if such a state of things
as now exists in Spain be a subject of anxiety both for
the principles in which it has originated and for the
results to which it Might naturally lead, can anything
he more mortifying or painful for Englishmen than the,
total frustration of every prospect, not merely of com-
plete success, such as Lord Palmerston so confident:iy
and repeatedly predicted when taunted in the Horke of
Commons with the unpromising nature of the cause to
which he had harnessed the efforts and rep otation of
this country, but of that prompt, as well as certain,
triumph which the other great statesman, General
Evans, assured us of when some of the electors of
Westminster displayed their impatience at the paralysis
or stagnation which appeared to have laid hold of this
politico-military adventurer, Hitherto Great Britain
has never raised an arm but to conquer. There was a
prestige every where that a corps of Englishmen wasin-
vincible ; in Spain, more especially, it was almost a na-
tional instinct to doubt tire possibility of defeating Bri-
tish troops. But it is a monument to the praise of
Viscount Palmerston, that in two campaigns he has done
his best to demolish the whole edifice of national glory
raised by the Duke of Wellington in seven—and, as is
truly, though invidiously, stated by a Royalist French
journal, that the " British standard is put to flight by
those whom Lord Palmerston calls a banditti." The
whole world will ask, and has a right to ask, how is
England indemnified for sueh • disgraces ? Has she
made any progress in .corumercial prosperity through
the favour of the Madrid Government ? Has she, by
her notable adherence to the principle of " non-inter-
vention" enabled Spain to advance one step towards
internal peace, or towards fixed and stable institu-
tions ? • Has she gained one particle of good will
either from the French Government or the French
people in exchange for the universal hatred of the
Spaniards ? Has she any the slightest hope of either
terminating the civil war ix Spain with success, or of
abandoning her share in it with honour, more than site
possessed three years ago ?' Lord Palmerston will
find that his personal share in these transactions is
one of which the effects arc likely to hang about
him—and that the public feeling on the subject
will not be set asleep so readily as a House of Com-
mons audience when the Noble Lord addresses them.
With regard to the East of Europe, we wish this one
question to be asked of Lord Palmerston by some
representative of the people of England—viz.,. whether
any British Consul or other public functionary accre-
dited to the republic of Cracow by his Majesty is now
resident in that city ? When. such a functionary was
n
sent thither ; and if none be ow there, why there is
not ?—for, if we do not much deceive ourselves, Lord
Palmerston, after his usual practice, contrived to
smother a question or unotion in the House of Com-
mons a year or two ago, by assuring the House that a
consular or diplomatic agent should be sent to repre-
sent this country in the little Polish republic. Russia,
Prussia, and Austria have all agents there. We have
a surmise, indeed, that his Lordship said such a person
was already on his way ; at all events, it ought to be
formally stated whether an agent was sent or not?
Whether he was authorized to remain there or not ?
If not, who it was that turned him out by the shoul-
ders,• and for what alleged cause ? Why should not
papers be asked for ? The fact is, that the Foreign-
office of England in the hands which now conduct it
has become a laughing-stock to those Powers which
do not regard it as a inaisance ; and something must
be done to rescue our international interests from such
disreputable keeping.,—Times.
It is with deep regret that we find that some advisers
of the Government have been perpetrating one of those
acts calculated to annoy their friends and gratify their
enemies. The case to which we allude is the pension-
ing of that thorough Tory, Sergeant Ludlow, which
is as gross a mistake as any journal ever had to record,
or any Government ever committed. It appears that
Sergeant Ludlow was appointed Town Clerk of Bristol
in the year 1819, at a salary of 800/. per annum.
The duties of the situation required that he should
attend the meetings of the Town Council, and act as
the legal adviser of that body, and also as the assessor
of the Magistrates at the Quarter Sessigna, lie had,
moreover, several other
notr,pnraotfuez,NTillaieSielrViiteeiSs to render
SoarreyofniorpatZtic7itleytail. Whteliliatthiew7l:gChto„uiltl.eihleu;ileearsteldie,
Niunicipal Bill came into office, lt was notified bytheir
direction to Mr. LIVIAC
retain Lis ssituatiog ; but to, tlkis natifteation he gave no
answer, fie did 04. like >iQ SCM 4 Liberal Council,