The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-06 00:00:00

MACAULEY appropriately called her MAJESTY,
must summon to her aid, we fear. the manly
spirit of that heroine, or, perchance, the
patience and resignation of ELIZABETH's mother
in her latter days ; for her Cabinet by openly
separating from the Reformers, has cut off the
right arm by which they might have protecte her
MAJESTY, both from her olp and from the
people's enemies.

We alluded yesterday in our summary of the
proceedings of Parliament to Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
notice, that he intended to propose a grant as usual
for the National and for the British and Foreign
School Societies ; and to-day we must return to the
subject in a more formal and serious manlier.
Mr NYSE objected to a grant for any particular
Societies. We echo his objection ; and we hope
that Mr. HUME and other Members, who are
strenuous advocates both for economy in expending
public money, and liberality in thought, will resist
the grant whenever it shall be proposed.
We do not know much of the British and Fo-
reign School Society, but we observe that those
who advocate its principles—the Patriot, for in-
stance—object to a scheme of education which
shall be equal for all. They are opposed to
the Ministerial plan, and are the advocates of
one species of intolerance. Why should the Ca-
tholics, the Socinians, the Jews, and the Infidels,
pay money in the shape of a tax, to promote the
views of these somewhat intolerant sectaries ?
But if such an argument apply ever so feebly to
the British and Foreign School Society, it affects
with irresistible force that exclusive intolerant So-
ciety which promulgated its opinions to the world
on Tuesday' week. Lord A sistGEit, speaking at that
meeting, and for the National Society, declared "utter
hostility at all times to any scheme of national edu-
cation, that did not confine that education to the prin-
ciples of the Established Church? The first resolu-
tion was that instruction should be under the su-
perintendence of the priesthood of the Established
Church. In supporting that resolution the Bishop
of LONDON declared that the National Society held
that all education should be combined with religion,
and that this religion should be exclusively the
religion of the Church of England. Now, why
should the Dissenters pay one penny—why should
the Catholics pay the smallest fraction of a penny,
of taxes to promote the success of such a narrow,
exclusive, bigotted set of priests ? Why should
the hard-working artizan, who out of his scanty
earnings pays 20s. or 255. a-year to a Mechanics'
Institute, for the purpose of educating himself, and,
being averse from polemical strife, carefully stays
away from Church, preferring to worship his
GOD in the green fields, and wandering over the
pleasant hills, and through the sunny vales in the
neighbourhood of the Metropolis, to listening to
the Rev. Mr. This or the Rev. Dr. That, while
lie pours forth the vials of his Protestant wrath
on the Catholics or on the Whigs—why should such
an industrious, careful, really religious man—and
the Metropolis abounds with them—be compelled
to pay, by a so-called paternal legislator the smallest
conceivable portion of a copper farthing, to place
funds in the hands of the Bishop of LONDON
and Lord ABINGER, wherewith to nourish in the
rising generation their own intense unsocial ex-
clusiseness and bigotry ? It is a gross injustice.
It is taxing industry to foster arrogance--it is bur-
dening honest humility to nourish priestly pride.
The grant comes out of the taxes, to which men of
all faith contribute ; and as these two Societies are
narrow, selfish, and exclusive, and have lately exhi-
bited a strong determination to resist the extension
of the benefit of such grants equally to men of all
faith, ;t will be discreditable to the Legislature to
give them one farthing of the public money. All
those who are friendly to general and equal educa-
tion, should immediately, therefore, petition against
the proposed grant as proposed by Lord J.RUSSELL.
All Members of the House of Commons who wish
to sec education dissevered from bigotry, should op-
pose the grant. In the House and out of the
House, all the Liberals ought to bestir themselves
to resist the plan of placing one additional farthing
of the public funds at the disposal of the Anti-Na-
tional Society. After the proceedings of last Tues-
day,and after the resistance lately made by our eccle-
siastics to the Ministerial plan of education, we are
bound to affirm that to vote a single sixpence to the
Anti-National Society is to increase the resources
of the avowed opponents of the secular power.

We se. by the accounts from Ireland that great
distress prevails in that country. The people com-
' plain of dearth, destitution, and famine. How is
this ? They have the Corn-laws. For Ireland,
it was said during the debates on the subject by all
the advocates of the Corn-laws, that those laws
were indispensible. The eulogists of the scoundrel
enactments were never tired of dilating on the
immense advantages of the Corn-laws to Ireland.
( What would become, it was said of Ireland if those
' laws were repealed ? We echo the question ; what
would become of Ireland ? `Would her people starve
as at present ? 'We answer no. Rent would fall,
the price of seed-corn and of potatoes would fall ;
there would be much less temptation, and much
less power, to export corn ; there would be less
competition for land ; everything on which man
lives would be obtained by industry at a less cost,
and there would be greater plenty of food. But the
scoundrel law-making landlords—and we never
shall cease to speak of them as they deserve—with
most deliberate villany, bring famine on the people
to enrich themselves.

The London and Croydon Railway was opened
yesterday for the public, anti we are glad to find
that the Directors have consulted the convenience
of the public, and we believe also their own ad-
vantage, in starting a train every hour from 20
minutes after 8 in the morning till 20 minutes after
9 in the evening, with the exception of three hours,
from 20 minutes past 11 to 20 minutes past 2.
We only wish they would consult their own interest
a little more, and reduce the fares. There never
was a greater error than the practice hitherto adopted
of making the railway fares only a trifle less than the
coach fares for the purpose of attracting passengers.
The Directors ought to put the competition with
coaches entirely out of the question, and consider
only in what way they can attract the greatest
number of passengers at a remunerating price.
The charge from London to Croydon, we see by
the advertisement, is is. 9d. by the first class, and
Is. 3d. by the socond—both too high. We are
convinced that is. 4d. and is. would be quite high
enough—nay too high, and we appeal to experience
and facts. The lowest charge on the Paris and
St. Germain Railroad, a distance of twelve miles,
was last year 10(1., and when it was re-
duced to 71rd. at the beginning of this year,
the profits increased 3001. for the first two
months, and we believe go on increasing. The
same rule must hold good here. The expense of
conveying eight carriages full, or half full, to
Croydon, would be nearly the same ; and what an
absurdity to make the fare so high as to prevent
many from going at all, and making others go by
roaches, or find some other mode of conveyance
Railroad Directors will in time find, that the only
way to obtain success is to make the charge so
small as to attract the greatest number of passen-
gers. The steam-boats to Greenwich now pay bet-
ter than they did when the charge was twice what
it is now. In cases of this kind, two and two never
make four.

We are glad to see that the important question
of National Education is beginning to be taken up
by the Metropolitan parishes. There is not a
more determined enemy to the general education of
the people than the Bishop of LONDON. CHARLES
JAMES was the very first man to sound the trum-
pet of alarm to the Church, when the QUEEN'S
Ministers proposed a grant of the public money for
this noblest and best of purposes. He was the
first to distort and misrepresent the Government
plan, in order to enlist against it the passions, the
prejudices, the bigotry of the priesthood, and those
who blindly follow these blind guides. It is therefore
peculiarly incumbent upon the inhabitants of the Me-
tropolis to raise their voices in favour of giving
light to the millions, whom their Metropolitan would
condemn to the blackness of darkness, rather than
see them cheered by a single ray from Heaven,
which had not first passed through a dis-
colouring medium prepared for the purpose
by him and his pious brethren. Let the
people of the various parishes in and around the
metropolis speak out on this question with the same
manly freedom as they do on others, and they will
soon silence the senseless clamour which the Clergy
have raised. Let the meetings be public, and the
discussion open, and we shall then see how small