The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-08 00:00:00

ing discontent in the country ; and we cannot know
that a petition was this day carried past our office,
signed by a million and a quarter of names, the
prayer of which goes wholly to upset the Consti-
tution, without being convinced that now, also,
there is a great and wide-spread, if not turbulent, dis-
content. Then numerous unions and clubs were
formed, to procure an amendment of the law or
oppose it : now we have the Convention sitting in
the metropolis. Then there was distress amongst
the agriculturists, and great riots, with rick
burning in the southern counties of England :
now there is uneasiness and incipient dis-
tress amongst the manufacturers, and we have
Chartist outrages in Wales, and alarm from the
Chartists in various places. Then, however, Ire-
land was also in a flame, trembling on the verge of
a commotion : now, notwithstanding the bigotry
of the Protestant Parsons, and the cruelty of some
Protestant landlords, she is more pacified and more
tranquil than at any period of her history. Little
more than a show of doing her justice has been
made, and it has operated on her like a charm. It
deserves well to be noted that the same show of doing
justice to England—unfortunately it was not fully
carried out—served to allay the alarming commo-
tion which prevailed in 1830. The promise of Reform
by Earl GREY'S Ministry soothed the public dis-
content, and fixed the eyes and the hopes cf the
people on the Government. He could say, on his
retirement from office in 1834, such was the effect
of Reform, that Political Unions and Trade Unions
were almost extinct. And though such Unions,

Inder a new form, are now again in existence, an

are more extensively organized than ever—the Re
form Act having utterly fail d, to satisfy the unre,

presented—yet it is plain and palpable that reform
has rendered the discontent less formidable than it
would have been, had the other grievances which

Reform redressed been left to fester in the
public mind. On the whole, though there is
a general likeness between the condition of the
country now and when the Whigs took office,

is present condition is not so bad as it was in
830, and it is notably much better in Ireland ; and
he improvement both here and there is due to the
ttle which has been done to approximate our insti-

_
tutions to justice.
It is also remarkable that as Toryism was ram-
pant in 1830, and Reform denied except it were
extorted, so discontent was general, and the avowal
by the Tories of violence and tenor as the princi-
ples of the Government, generated violence and
resistance on the part of the people. So, too, as
Toryism has again gained the ascendancy in Eng-
land, and as the Government has glided into
the old Tory tracks, under the influence of
Tory Peers, Tory Squires, and Tory Priests,
discontent has become extensive ; and it is precisely
least inlrelarid, whereToryism has been most snubbed
and most kept down. The principles which the
Whigs learnt in opposition were found admirable
means of government when in office ; and for nine
years, by acting on them, they have preserved the
country at peace, and leave office with the country
on the whole considerably improved. Wherever and
whenever those principles were suffered to guide
their course, as in Ireland, and as in the period im-
mediately after their accession to office, the people
have been most at ease ; and wherever and when-
ever they have slided into Toryism discontent has
increased, and the difficulties of the country
have been augmented. This is a lesson which
ought not to be thrown away on their successors.
Although we have thought it our duty at times
to censure parts of their conduct, it will re-
dound to their lasting honour that they conducted
the Government through a period or great agitation,
without having recourse to any extraordinary means,
and with fewer prosecutions of the press and fewer
acts of severity than in any former period of equal
duration.

On the day on which the Bishop of LONDON,
in the House of Lords, announced his intention
of opposing every system of education that would
include the different classes of Dissenters, another
Bishop, remarkable for his good sense, learning,
and piety, had the satisfaction of, witnessing a scene
which, to his perfect satisfaction, disproved every
_ . _

statement against such a plan, and which drew
forth remarks that would make the Bishop of Lox-

DON, 44 if he had the heart of a man, and the

feelings of a Christian, confess he had sinned in
he accusations he had preferred." Most of our read-

ers probably have have heard of the attacks made
against the British and Foreign School Society, and

of the establishment of the National School Society,

under the patronage of the Church, to correct the

baneful influences of the first. In consequence of
these attacks, a strong prejudice arose among reli-

gious conscientious Churchmen against these sch ools.
They were held up as places for encouraging So-

cinianism, nay, even Deism ; and in the words of

the charitable Bishop of LONDON, the " wildest
latitudinarianism." Dr. STANLEY, Bishop of
NORWICH, strongly impressed with the importance
of these accusations, yet, at the same time,
not willing to take the word of a Bishop
for gospel, resolved to make a personal in-
quiry, and in company with Lord BEXLEY,
whose orthodox opinions are well known, proceeded
as a spy to the annual examination of the British
and Foreign School in the Borough-road. Every
Christian will read the result with unfeigned de-
light, because it wipes off a grievous stain cast on
a meritorious body ; and, what is of still more im-
portance, because it affords the evidence of a Bishop
and a Noble Lord, both prejudiced against these
Schools, that the imputations cast on them are
utterly groundless, and that a general system of
education, notwithstanding the exclusive doctrines
of Dr. BLOOMFIELD and Lord ABINGER, may
be established without any danger to the principles
of the Protestant Church. The contrast between
this picture and that" must afford the purest con-
solation to every sincere Christian. The one party
would be lenient to the failings of human nature—

would become " all things to all men," and would
admit into their schools and into the bosom of the
Church, all those who believed in the great doe-
trines of Christianity laid down in the Bible. The
other would raise a wall of fire between Church-
men and Dissenters, and perpetuate that un-
christian hostility between different sects, which
estab-
lished stigma on most
has cast an
We have therefore
lished religions. great pleasure
e words of Dr. STAN',
in quoting the EY) merely
premising that his • Lord BEXLEY expressed ,,gat •
'.
fication at the scene, and his sincere desire that
the sentiments which the Right Bev. Prelate ex-
pressed with might be his own
. and death.
support both in lif - " The B. h
is op was
the
in the chair, and thus described prejudices with
which he entered the room, and the convictions with
which he left it :--
He had come with hesitation, and
doubted
whether he ought to accept the office_..be
had been
told of the nakedness of the land, and he had come
as a spy, and like the spies of old he had brought
back a rich portion—a portion far richer than that
with which they returned. He had heard very se-
rious charges preferred against the School—lie
had been told by the Press that morning that he
was going to a school where there was a system in
which the spirit of the Sacred Volume was lost, the
essential doctrines excluded, and everything tram-
pled on which a Churchman venerates. He was
himself a Churchman, and conscientiously so. But
he could not allow even an enemy to be trampled on,
and if he had the heart of a man and the feelings of
a Christian, he would surely confess he bad
sinned in the accusations which lie had preferred.
It had been said that Christians of different de-