The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We congratulate the country on the successful op.
aosition presented on Friday evening to the navy
stimates, when two pensions, one of 5001. pet
innum, the other of 4501., were struck off by
virtuous vote of the House of Commons, and not
.nerely a small sum saved to the country, but a prin-
ciple of vast importance maintained, and a whole-
same precedent established. Mr. Bathurst, a bar.
ister, son of the President of the Council, and Mr,
Oundas (a naval officer, we suppose), son of the first
Lord of the Admiralty, bad been, about four years
3T.0, appointed respectively Commissioners of the
Victualling and the Navy Board, and recently, on
:ts being found that their salaries were useless bur-
lens to the country, the gentlemen were removed
from office. Now it is well enough understood that
.when public servants (that is to say, all but poor une
protected clerks) have been for a long series of years
in office, and have worn out the best portion of their
lives in the duties of it, they have, cm retiring, equit-
sble claims to a maintenance which are invariably
admitted by the nation. Mieisters of state, and se-
cretaries, and high functionaries of that sort, have
taken, indeed, very ample care of themselves:,
scheme of remuneration having been proposed some
time ago by Lord Liverpool's Government, which of
course received the sanction of Parliament, where-
by, after ten years of service, large retired al-
lowances were secured to these great personages,
not less, we believe, than three-fourths of their salary,
although in their case no deduction whatever was
made from their pay to form a fund for future sub-
sistence. But it remained for Lord Bathurst and
Lord Melville, they being Cabinet Ministers, and of
necessity consulted on the grants now under consi-
deration, to stipulate for retired allowances to mem-
bers of their own families, who were still in the
prime and vigour of life, and whose official course
was in its infancy I We called public attention to
this offensive subject many weeks ago. We said it
was " a shame" for Cabinet Ministers even to
follow so greedy an example bad it been offered to
them, much more to set one, when, after a hunt for
screening precedents, none such could be found to
cloak the cupidity of their relations. Sir Robert
Heron did justice—and no more than justice—to the
public interests on this remarkable occasion. As for
his reference to the history of the first Lord Melville,
we are astonished that with a certain resolution of
the House of Commons before the eyes, and still
fresh in the remembrance of every Englishman ar-
rived at middle age, the descendants of that noble-,
man do not show their sensibility rather in a fasti-
dious disgust at the very thought of touching public
money, than in first, a morbid appetite for pensions,
and next a soreness (not indeed unnatural) at the
least allusion to the nature of the first Lord
Melville's services. With regard to these
wretched proofs of a disposition to feed upon the
country, they ought never to have come before
Parliament at all. Common delicacy in two
of the Cabinet at least ought to have averted such
an affront as has been offered to the whole body
of Ministry, had their colleagues—which probably
was the case—felt awkward about reminding the
" President," and the " First Lord," of their duty.
But being before the House of Commons, the next
best policy for Ministers was to offer no defence of
the transaction ; and, in fact, none was offered by
Mr. Peel, who felt the embarrassment into which he
had been thrown by others. Mr. Goulburn, less
clear-sighted possibly to the result which awaited
him, adventured a few palliatory sentences, but
utterly failed. When the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman called upon the House for reasons why
the same conduct should not be observed towards
Messrs. Dundas and Bathurst as towards per-
sons less officially and fortunately connected, he
seemed to forget that no individuals but those
named Bathurst and Dundas ever had been, or
could have been, placed in such a situation. " The
lowest of the King's subjects," who are sometimes
spoken of with formal respect, but seldom' treated
with much ceremony otherwise, never would have
been stuck, for a short period, into the places about
to be abolished, that their reduction,after a" service"
of three or four years, might be made a pretence for
saddling two healthy young pensioners on the nation.
Mr. Bathurst, to be sure, had given up a profession,
a lucrative profession l Oh, yes, he gave up the
ornaments of wig and gown, but as was truly said
by Mr. Hobbouse—" Noble scions, who cannot get
briefs at the bar, do maE-,le to get themselves on
the pension list." We echo Sir Robert Heron,
that the whole affair was " paltry :" but the rebuke
will be of serious advantage to the State, becanse it
must be an incalculable convenience to every honest
Prime Minister, to have a ready argument at hand,
wherewith to repress the sordid and indecent ra-
pacity of his colleagues.—timer.
In looking over an official report upon the chari-
table institutions of Dublin, we have been struck by
the very remarkable fact, that although every one of
them is mere or less maintained by grants of the
public money from Parliament, aided with a. single
exception by the contributions of private charity,
five out of six of these establishments are left with-
out the slightest support by assessments of the
county or city grand juries of Dublin,—the very
spot to whose relief and comfort they have from the
first so extensively administered.
The institutions we speak Ware thelfollowing—

1. The Lying-in-Hospital.
2. Steevens's Hospital, principally; for accidents and
surgical cases.
3. The Cork-street Hospital for Fevers.
4. The Hospital for Incurables.
5. The Westmoreland LocklHospital.
6. The House of Industry.

For the support of the above asylums of the
wretched, upwards of 45,0001. is annually drawn
from public or private sources; and the only one to
which the county or city, rates have contributed is
the Hospital for Incurables, which has profited from
them to the amount, in late years, of 6001. per
annum. We have beard in Parliament severe
animadversions on the waste of public money by
.grand juries throughout the whole of Ireland; and
without the least surprise we have seen the defence
of these upright and disinterested bodies undertaken
by gentlemen—honourable gentlemen—to whom
aristocratic jobbing seems, no doubt, a ♦enial trans-
gression. But the evil day is coming upon them,
when Irish grand juries will no longer be able to
give the money of their neighbours, or to withhold
their own, from corrupt or capricious preferences.
So much, we believe, may be affirmed without rash-
ness, that the King's Government has, at length,
decided on bringing these Kings of Brantford to
their good behaviour.—Times.
The French Ministers are determined to carry
matters with a high hand. The police, it is said,
begins to display an activity not surpassed by that
body in the best of times ; and the war goes on
briskly against the Press.--In the proceedings be-
fore the Tribunal de Police Correctionelle against
the National, of which a Report appears in the
Paris Papers of Thursday, a ♦ery able speech was
made by M. Mangin. He concluded his harangue by
some observations, which have often been before
used, on the impolicy of punishing the expression of
opinion or complaint. In truth punishment is always
inefficacious. If the public are indifferent, there can
be no use in drawing attention to a writer who can
do no harm, while it is always injudicious to appear
in the unamiable light of persecutors. If, on the
other hand, the public are in a state of excitement,
the prosecution of a writer will neither allay that
excitement nor deter other writers from rushing for-
ward to become objects of the public attention and
public sympathy. This is placed in a strong light by
M. Mangin. "An alarm (lie says) is felt at see-
ing the Press discuss principles. For my part, I can-
not share these fears. My doctrine in this respect is
comprised in it few words, and I have recently applied
it (in the case of M.Aguado); respect for private life ;
full liberty with decency; a little enthusiarn even for
public affairs. In fact, principles never precipitate Ira-
dons into revolutions. Excepting in religious matter.,
the people never rise for abstractions, of which they