The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-10 00:00:00

SPTRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have been amused with the description of some
antics lately exhibited by certain reverend buffoons
before the good people of Liverpool. The place se-
Jetted for the display was most appropriate. The same
place that witnessed the grimaces of a Grimaldi was
judiciously nelected for tlie mummery of a M'Ghee.
We find in the programme of the proceeding, that the
part of the stage immediately next the pit was reserved
for the clergy who took part in the proceeding. Among
the chief performers the principal part was sustained
by Mr. M'Ghee, " preacher at once and zany of the
age," who was announced in the play-bills as the rec-
tor of Powerscourt. Now, not only has the gentleman
do chum to this title, but, to the credit of the Este-
blie'oed Church. not one of its hierarchs has been found
so lost to every sense of religion, dignity, and honour as
to confer the smallest promotion upon the strolling in-
cendiary. This follower of " a meek and humble
Saviour" thought proper to reiterate his oft-repeated
slanders, and to brand with the foul sin of perjury
every individual of the Roman Catholic persuasion
who has hitherto sat in Parliament. Not only did Mr.
O'Connell fall under the frothings of his ribald tongue,
but such men as the Killeens, the Woulfes, the Bels
Jews, the Wyses, were included in the wholesale slan-
der. The tumbling of such a mountebank as this
can, of course, excite iio feelings but those of ridicule
and disgust ; but we own it gives us no little sorrow
to perceive that, in any corner of the empire a body of
persons could he collected to assent to a charge of per-
jury against the followers of a creed who sacrificed, for
upwards of a century and a half, the dearest honours,
the most valuable privileges of the State, to their
strict and conscientious seruplea to violate the sanc-
tity of an oath. What was it (the dupes of an O'Neil
and a M'Ghee might have asked themselves), what
was it that alone excluded Catholics from Parliament
and all the offices of the State but their irresistible
repugnance to subscribe to a declaration which their
consciences abjured ? And now we are told that
Catholics who shrink from falsehood as from death,
to gain the highest prizes that the State holds forth,
have, one and all, agreed to steep their souls in per-
jury to pass an appropriation clause I The fanatics
of Liverpool have, however, one recommendatiom ;
they do not disguise their object. We find the Rev.
Hugh O'Neil thus eulogising the Constitution as' it
existed in the heyday.of corruption and the borough-
mongers :—" Towards the close of the last century
the British Constitution, based upon the deserved su-
p -emacy of the word of God over the minds of
men, and built up in the lofty principles of a
freely-circulated Bible, was in full force." The
British Constitution, at the period alluded to, was
built upon the stubble foundation of rotten bo-
roughs, which, at the time of their destruction,
were bewailed by their devoted champions, the
Conservative parsons, as thegroundwork of the Church,
and now they are held up as identical with the supre•
macy of the word of God. No doubt the reverend
orator will Gird up his loins to restore these sacred
muniments of Christianity. With the restoration of
the rotten boroughs another object of kindred piety is
avowed—the repeal of the Emancipation Act. " What
is to be done" (continued the rapt and inspired ora-
tor) ? " The question has been asked already" (a
voice in the gallery, " Repeal the Emancipation Act,"
followed by reiterated peals of applause.) " That is
the voice of true sympathy. You have read our hearts,
and have had the boldness to speak it from your
tongue, my brother." We believe the envenomed bi-
gots ; the repeal of the Emancipation Act, the revival
of the infernal penal code, so that they might glut
their vengeance against the Catholics, is the hope
that swells their bosoms. Disfranchisement, proscrip-
tion, extermination. On these three hang all their
...se' laws and prophets.—Morning Chronicle.
New York papers to the 20th ult. inclusive, have
reached us via Liverpool, by the packet-ships Europe
and. Scotland. Our readers will be much gratified to
perceive that the commercial embarrassments of the
United States are in rapid progress of removal, that
confidence is being resumed, and that great activity is
already manifested in mercantile transactions. This
improved state of things is in part attributable to the
favourable accounts received from Europe, and in part
to the monetary measures in progress of adoption by
the Senate and House of Representatives. A Bill
has been proposed to the Senate to authorise the
issue of Treasure notes, of not less than 100 dollars
each, to the amount of twelve millions of dollars, re-
deemable in twelve months, and bearing six per cent.
interest. Other Bills, a summary of which will be
found elsewhere, are also in progress for facilitating
commercial intercourse and the restoration of public
confidence. Both Houses appeared actuated by the
utmost unanimity. The proposition for an exclusive
specie system is, for the present, at an end : and all
parties look forward with confidence to the establish-
ment of credit on a sound, and, at the same time,
elastic basis, secure and stable in its nature, and pos-
sessing an expansive capability suitable to the wants
continually felt by every great mercantile community.
This is the desideratum, not in the United States only,
but in Great Britain, and every State actively and ex-
tensively engaged in commercial negociation. To ree
vert suddenly from an over-extensive paper currency to
a too limited specie currency, and an exclusively
specie currency must in its very nature be too limited,
would be as impolitic and absurd as to recommend
starvation after having suffered_ from a surfeit.
Wealth is too frequently confounded with what is
merely its representative. A metallic circulation is not
a whit more valuable than a paper circulation duly re-
presenting an equivalent capital ; nay, in some cases it
is less so, as is evidenced by bills being every day pur-
chased at a premium, from their affording greater faci-
lity and security in making remittances. No commer-
cial community, in fact, can exist without receiving
greater or less assistance from a paper circulation—to
abolish it would be not only to cripple, but to destroy
all mercantile action. It is true, when not under due
controtil, disastrous effects have been caused by the
excessive mimultts given to speculation in consequence
of the too great issues of paper-money—but this is its
abuse : when properly regulated, it is the life-blood of
every trading community ; and great as have been the
evils which America, in comrnon with Great Britain,
has experienced from an iil-devised and ill-regulated
banking system, she would soon find that to abandon a
paper medium of commerce would be to close up the
fountains of her prosperity and greatness.—Mor-rring
Advertiser.

It cannot be denied but that, with the very 'best
intentions and ample materiel, great difficulty must
exist in rendering the kind of scientific re-union which
has this year been held at Liverpool creditable to sci-
ence and. philosophy, or useful- in its results. Philo-
sophers are not always men most practically versed in
the ordinary usages of life ; nor have men of deep ab-
stract science always, the happiest mole either of
im-
patting their own knowledge to others, or of applying
it to the points which should be the object of all
science—the welfare and improvement of society. The
late meeting was, i appears, the seventh of " The
British Associa.tion for the Advancement of Science;"
and though the number of persons, both ;earned and
unlearned atinntling it is said to have been 1,840, being
excel of 536 over the meeting at Bristol, it may be
doubted whether science has been materially advanced
iTinl the occasion—ln short, whether there has not
been more smoke and nolse than actual ammunition
t
nAage of " ioo many cooks" is stt ictly
tszi such assemblages and without incurring
the invidietta taiik
o inquiring among the 1:840 what
prorortion the learned bore to the unlearned, one
thilig is undeniable, that there is no instance on record
rif any preatl.ob,i,2ot in science or the arts having been
brought to ,ight, or promoted in a crowd, - The
Roam jbet's scribimus indocti doctique, as well as
the English satirist's sneer, 'that " all who cannot
*lie translate," was applicable, we take it, to the
appear, great bulk of this assembly, who a according to
the published accounts, to have run about from section
tg section merely " novitath avida," while the erudite
tads of the sections seem to have been rather good-
haturedly bent on satisfying this craving for an omnrum
gaheniM than in promoting any plain ostensible ob-
ject of public utility. It is said that when an audience
once begin to titter at a tragedy, the laugh becomes
contagious, and the doom of the author is sealed. In
like manner, when an affair of this kind is so con-
ducted as to excite, ridicule, all seriousness and utility