The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-28 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDON. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1839.

declared law of the land at open defiance, or on the
other to confess that they had been guilty of an
unprovoked and arrogant invasion of the righ:3 of
the State, was not a problem of easy solution.
Solved, however, it must be, and accordingly forth
steps a great magician, Dr. CHALMERS, the prime
mover of all the mischief, and proposes a new plan
for reconciling contradicl ions, which his followers,
who, unhappily for the Kirk, constituted in this
case a majority of the Assembly, eagerly adopted.
Had he prescribed to each of them a double dose of
MORISON'S pills, we have no doubt it would have
been taken with as little hesitation and with infi-
nitely less detriment either to the constitution of the
patients or to that of the Church of Scotland. This
nostrum, which the Reverend Doctor wrapped up
in the form of a resolution, was compounded after
the following original fashion : The first paragraph
of the resolution pretends to acquiesce in the deci-
sion of the House of Lords, asserting that it has
ever been the practice of the Church to give and
inculcate implicit obedience (!) to the decisions of
Civil Courts in regard to civil rights ; while in the
second paragraph it flies directly in the face of this
doctrine declares that the General Assembly
" cannot abandon the principle" for which it has
been contending in this very case, the decision
of which has, on its own showing, settled the
question—insists that this principle is, and always
has been, part and parcel of the law of the Church ;
and states, lastly, that the Assembly is determined
to enforce it ! ! So much for the implicit obedi-
ence to Civil Courts, which Dr. CHALMERS and
his clique are in the habit of "giving and incul-
cating."
No doubt the General Assembly can enforce
this or any other principle which it chooses to
adopt, but it will then be pleased not to denomi-
nate itself the Assembly of the Church of Scot-
land. It must cut all connection with the State,
if it will not hold to the terms on which
that connection was entered into, and on
which alone it can be maintained. It must
forego all in the shape of temporal advan-
tage which it derives from the State, if it ousts the
State from the copartnery concern, and must devote
itself entirely to dealing in spiritual matters. It
will then be a true Christian Church, of a purely
voluntary character and strictly apostolical consti-
tution. If this be what Dr. CHALMERS is driving
at, we think he should say so at once, and then
the question might be fairly brought to an issue.
For our own part, we are afraid that the people of
Scotland are not yet prepared to take so great a
stride as this champion of Church independence,
with his seven-league-boots, seems to be meditating,
and that if it were honestly and broadly put to
them whether they would have the Ecclesiastical
Constitution, as it existed up to 1834, when the
Veto Act was passed, with its patronage, its sti-
pends, its kirks, manses, glebes, &c., or Dr. CHAL-
MERS' " principle," denuded of these incum-
brances, we are strongly inclined to think there
would be a goodly majority against the Doctor and
his naked principle.
Of this leaning to creature comforts, this hank-
ering after the flesh-pots of Egypt, in the carnal
minds of his countrymen, if not in his own, Dr.
CHALMERS betrays his consciousness, and, there-
fore, in the third paragraph of his resolution he
tries hard to prevent the divorce of things :temporal
from things spiritual, which is the natural result of
the " independent" principle. He proposes that,
to avert the evil consequences that are likely to flow
from this separation, a Committee be appointed to
consider how the conflicting claims of the Church
and the State may be best adjusted, and to
correspond with the Government on the sub-
ject. This surpasses in assurance and stolidity
any proposition that has ever come under our
consideration. In that very resolution, in which
this meek apostle of obedience hurls defiance at the
decision of the Supreme Judicatory of the land,
and actually threatens to persist in the course
which has been by it declared illegal, he has the
face to ask the Government to give its sanction to
his rebellious conduct, to countenance and encou-
rage disobedience of the laws I Truly Dr. CHAL-
MERS is a consistent as well as a modest man !
The General Assembly has now to consider
what effect its proceedings are likely to produce on
the people of Scotland, and on the country at large.
Having adopted Dr. CHALMERS' " principle,' it
remains to he seen whether, by so doing, it has
raised itself in public estimation, or strengthened
the foundations of the Church. We believe it has
done neither—but the contrary of both. Sober-
minded people will hesitate to remain connected with
a Church whose ministers set an example of despis-
ing the laws, and Dissent will reap the benefit ;
while the extravagant pretensions of these highflyers,
and their still more extravagant perseverance in them,
after they have been proved to be inconsistent with
the civil constitution of the country, must disgust all
men, and most of all those to whom the zealots of
the Kirk have hitherto looked up for support.
Dr. CHALMERS and his friends are endeavouring
to effect impossibilities. They would fain take the
sweets and leave the bitters of their cup of Church-
and•State connection. But this may not be in the
state matrimonial.

In another article we have referred to the means
which are adopted to bring discredit on the Minis-
terial proposition to commence an improvement in
the education of the people. In the present
article it is our intention to refer to the claims now
made in the name of the Clergy for them exclusively
to controul the education of the people. The Rev.
B. H. KENNEDY, in his letter to the inhabitants
of Shrewsbury, makes it a reproach to the
Ministers that " they did not confer with
the Prelates of our Church," not " with the
heads or professors of our Universities," not " with
any of those in whom an honest Churchman can
place confidence." One of the special accusations
of the Tory papers, too, is that the " Ministers did
not consult the Bench of Bishops." The Clergy
and their partizans require that nothing shall be
done towards establishing a system of education
without consulting them. We ask the public to
inquire what there is in the position or conduct of
the Clergy, which should make it incumbent on
the State to ask their advice in preference to that of
all other men on this very important subject ?
We have first to remark that the Clergy are the
only class of the community who are represented in
the Upper House of Parliament. The Bishops
are the authorised organs of the Priesthood, and
can give their advice openly in the House of Peers.
The Priests concur in common with other free-
holders or residents in towns, in electing Members
to the House of Commons, and if they cannot sit
there themselves, they have, in addition to the
Bishops in the Upper House, the four representa-
tives of the two Universities, who are almost exclu-
sively their organs. lnevery parish theyhave had, and
yet have, from the tithe-system, prodigious power over
the bulk of the agriculturists, which enables them
to exercise a very great influence over the composi-
tion of the House of Commons. All these legiti-
mate means of controling the Legislature, and
checking the progress of any measure which they
dislike, does not satisfy the Priesthood ; and this
excessively greedy and ambitious class of men ac-
tually make it a fault or a crime in the Ministers,
that they have not, before proposing any measure
concerning education to Parliament, taken the opi-
nion of the Prelates and the Professors of the
Universities. What would they have ? We an-
swer—the unlimited command of our persons and
properties.

There is, however, an excellent reason why they
should not be exclusively consulted. They are
jects of suspicion and mistrust to all but Church-
men ; and to consult them exclusively implies an
outrage to the great body of the Dissenters. If
the Ministers had proposed an alteration in the bibs
or surplices of the Clergy, or in the mode of chaunt-
ing the Cathedral service, if they had suggested
the exclusion from the Liturgy of the Athanasian
Creed, or a due curtailment of that Popish mass
which bears the name of the Litany, and had not
first consulted all the Archbishops, Bishops, and
Rectors, the great body of the Clergy would have
had just reason to complain. But what right
have they to assume a control over the educa-
tion of any children but their own ? If
the State wished to make the education,
which it deems necessary, distasteful to all Dis-
senters, and to all the persons who dislike the
meddling of the Priesthood—now not a few—it
could adopt no more effectual means than to consult
the Prelates and make its plans subservient to their
selfish purposes.
And what right have they from character to
make such a demand ? Have they educated the
people ? Have they carefully studied the means
of instructing and improving mankind ? Are
they the possessors of some exclusive secret

for drilling the mind into virtue—for mak-
ing it drink in knowledge as the fertile earth
drinks in rain, and send it forth in nourish-
ing fruits and beautiful flowers, and for making the
mind take, like the newly invented photogenic
paper, no impressions but those of loveliness, such
as the artist desires ? Their pretensions, we know, are
enormous, but experience proves that they have pro-
duced no beneficial effects. Since the days of TYN-
DAL and BOLINGUROICE, the Priesthood of England
have had unbounded sway, except as curbed by the
press, over the public mind. Every approach to inde-
pendence of thought, every attempt to overthrow their
exclusive dominion, has, by public opinion or by
the force of law, and very often with the commission
of barbarous injustice, been successfully put down,
and for nearly a century they have been the undis-
puted lords of the people. What in that time
have they done to improve them ? When they got
PAINE exiled, did they begin to instruct their own
flocks ? Not they. They grossly neglected all
the means of education, except where they drove it
as a trade, as at Oxford and Cambridge, and Har-
row, and Eton, and made money by it ; and they
resisted the attempts by other men to improve the
people till they found they could not stop educa-
tion, and then they seized it to divert it to their own
aggrandizement. if LANCASTER and his support-
ers had not compelkd the Clergy to move, they
would most likely at this day have been slumbering
on in the full enjoyments of their revenues, without
ever thinking of the condition of the people, as they
were till about 1812. The shameful manner
in which they, with unbounded power and un-
told revenues at their disposal, neglected to in-
struct the people placed in their charge,
gives them, of all the men in the empire, the least
right to be consulted on any new plans of education
Since these gentlemen by their excessive arro-
gance, challenge examination, we shall endeavour,
on future opportunities, to do them justice, and we
hope the Liberal press throughout the country, will
think it only performs a most necessary public
duty in engaging in the same course of proceeding.
There is abundant evidence to be obtained, and
some we have ourselves already published, of the
much greater amount of instruction supplied by
Voluntary Dissent than by the endowed Priesthood.
There is abundant proof to be gathered from expe-
rience that the secret for improving mankind, of
which the Priests claim the possession, is really
worth nothing. In their hands it has produced
no benefit ; and now that they demand a veto on all
political reforms which do not square with their
interests, and promote their worldly power, we
shall think it a solemn duty to show by their
lives and doctrines, that they are wholly unfit to be
entrusted with the national education. A most im-
portant principle is invoked in the resistance
they have volunteered to the nascent plan
for improving education, and it will provoke,
we trust, an equally important discussion. They
have set every engine at work to impede
and overthrow the Ministers because they are
friendly to liberal education, and the time is now
come when the nation must decide whether the
bulk of the laymen or the Priesthood are to be the
real governors of the empire.

A general belief prevails at Paris, that it is the in-
.ention of LOUIS PHILIPPE to take advantage of
;he late disturbance, aml impose still more strict laws
on the press, one of the most important of which, is,
that the debates in the Chambers shall be given
only by official reporters, in other words, by paid
agents of the Government. This of course can be
be done only with the consent of the Ministry,
of PASSY, DUPAURE, LAMARTINI, and others
of the liberal school, who have been brought into
notice by their Parliamentary talents. Should
they consent to such a measure for repressing pub-
lic opinion, and aid the KING in destroying, no:
only the liberty of the press, but the character and
freedom of the Chamber of Deputies, in what
would the policy of Lours PiimirrE differ from
that of CHARLES X. ? Next to destroying the
Charter, would be the suppression or mutilation of
the Parliamentary debates. The public would
place no confidence in the reports—they would
place no confidence in the proceedings of their re-
presentatives, and the consummation ofsuch a project
would in all probability be the signal for the gene-
ral outbreak of those Secret Societies, which, accord-
ing to universal testimony, prevail in every part of
France. Possibly the Cabinet, with the KING still
virtually at its head, may consider they have only
a choice of evils, and that the safer course would be
to make a disguised attack on the Constitution,
under the pretence of checking the licentiousness of
the press, before this powerful guardian of public
liberty ha fanned these Societies into an open
flame. One thing, however, is certain, that since
1830, France has never been in such a critical state
as at the present moment. The electors returned a
majority in opposition to the general policy of the
SOVEREIGN; by delay, manceuvring, and finally, by
an insurrection, which even the peaceable citizens
regarded rather with favour than hostility, the great ob-
ject of the people has been defeated; and they arc now
threatened with new coercive laws, to prevent them
in future from again thwarting the will of the SOVE-
REIGN. Will they submit ? Will the National
Guards, who call out for an extension of the suffrage,
join with the Government in rendering even the ex-
isting representative system a nullity ? This is a
fearful question for the peace of France, and we
leave LOUIS PHILIPPE anti SOULT to answer i

Letters from Alexandria of the Bth inst., while ad

nutting the extreme probability of a war between the
SULTAN and Viceroy of EGYPT, do not confirm the ac-
counts received on Saturday evening in London, of hos-
tilities having actually commenced. According to the
Egyptian correspondents of the Journal des Debats and
the National, both of the Bth, from Alexandria, the
SULTAN, acting under the secret instructions of Russia,
had commanded HAFIZ I'ACHA to penetrate into Syria,
but to avoid, by all means, the first act of aggression
which his Highness supposed to be consisting in firing
the first cannon shot. The VicEitoY was not less wary
in avoiding the imputation of being the aggressor ;
and that the European powers might be fully sensible
of the extent of his forbearance, he caused the follow-
ing official letter, dated the 29th of April, to be ad-
dressed by ARTUR BEY, First Secretary and Interpre-
ter to his Excellency 13.suos Bay, to the Consuls-
General resident at Cairo and Alexandria :
" His Higkness the Generalissimo has just informed me,
by a private letter, that the forces of the Sultan have ad-
vanced beyond Bilegik (formerly called Byr), and erected
there some fortifications. The Generalissimo, after order-

ing the regiments quartered in Syria to march towards
Aleppo, was preparing to proceed in person to that city.
" His Royal Highness the Viceroy, considering that this
conduct of the Porte must have had for its object to make
the blame fall upon us, has written to the Generalissimo
to make no movement until he shall be certain of the ad-
vance of the troops of the Sultan, and to confide in God
and act in confidence, if he obtained positive information
of the advance of those troops.

" His Highness the Viceroy instructs me to communi.
cate immediately to the Consuls-General what 1 have the
honour to transmit to you."

On the 28th ult. Beyrout was without a single sol-
dier, the garrison having been ordered to join the army
of IBRAHIM PACHA, Generalissimo of the Egyptian
army. On the sth inst., great excitement prevailed in
Alexandria, in consequence of the arrival of a Russian
Courier from St. Petersburg charged with important
dispatches from his Government to the Russian Consul,
into whose hands only would he deliver them. The
Consul immediately waited upon the VicElan, but of
what took place during the interview nothing trans-
pired.
The following extracts from the communications
reeeived this morning supply what important details have
reached us :
" On board the Leonidas, Roads of Syra, May 10.
" The Pacha has proceeded from Caira to Danuena, and
there received the Couriers from Syria, without suffering
their contents to become known. The corps forming the
left of the Turkish army are in the mountains. The right
wing is in advance towards Bagdad, seeking to effect a
junction with the force of the Pacha of that city.'
NUMERICAL STRENGTH OF THE TURKISH

AND EGYPTIAN FORCES.
" Persons the best informed represent the respective
knees of the two parties to be the following : —The Turkish
army, between 45,000 and 50,000 strong, and well pro-
vided with artillery, is believed to have left the mountains
of Taurus, with a view to attack Syria in the rear, where
it expects that its presence will occasion a general rising.
It is divided into three corps, one of which, that to the
right (15,000) men, is manceuvring on the left bank of the
Euphrates, and going to meet reinforcements, which the
Pasha of Bagdad is bringing to the army; the second
corps (20,000 men) crossed the Euphrates at Byr, where
it has thrown up some intrenchments ; the third (15,000
men) is to guard the passes through the mountains, in
order to keep open the communications, and secure the
arrival of convoys from Constantinople. This army has
neither magazines, stores, nor provisions, and is as badly
trained as it is undisciplined.
" I have been able to obtain more certain-information re-
specting the forces of the Viceroy. He has now under
arms in his extensive dominions 200,000 soldiers, 100,000
of whom are in Syria.
" This Syrian army is composed as follows :_lnfantry__
three regiments of the Guards, 9,600 men; a regiment of
Artillery, 3.200; fourteen regiments of the line, 44,600 •
three regiments more on their way to Syria, 9,600; irre-
gular Infantry, 4,000; in all, 71,200 men.
" Cavalry—Three regiments of the Guard, 2,560 men ;

two regiments of Artillery, 1,700; nine regiments of the
line, 7,630; irregulars, 16,000; in all, 27,900 men.
" General total 99,100 men.
" These troops are badly equipped and unpaid, but they
have extensive magazines. In point of instruction, disci,
pline, and organization, they arc infinitely superior to the
Turks; moreover, they possess a certain moral force, for
which they are indebted to their last victories over the
Turks. Ibrahim Pasha has with him about 30,000 men in
the camp of maceuvres be teas established near Aleppo, and
the remainder of his regiments are employed in different
parts of the country, where an alarming spirit of insurrec-
tion prevails. It is thought, however, that unless Ibrahim
experience a signal defeat, no serious rising will take place
in Syria."

The bad faith manifested by the SULTAN, who had
pledged himself to Admiral ROUSSIN and Lord PON-
SONRY that he would adopt the pacific policy recom-
mended by their respective Courts, has roused the ire
of the French Press. It is certainly not a little re-
markable that only five days before the date of the
VICEROY'S circular the British and French Consuls had
received such communications from their Governments
as warranted them in publicly notifying to MEHEMET
Au that the SULTAN'S operations would be purely
defensive. But it would seem that there is in-
deed only a Municipal Government at Constan-
tinople, and that the SULTAN is compelled impli-
citly to obey the instructions received from St. Pe-
tersburgh. No doubt Russia would be delighted to
embroil the Porte in a quarrel with France and Eng-
land, and for this purpose no course can be better de-
vised than such a breach of faith on the part of the
SULTAN as shall deprive the Divan of the support
which it now receives from public opinion in England
and France. Our Government must, therefore, act
with caution as well as firmness. We must be careful
in distinguishing between a ♦oluntary and compulsory
insult ; and, above all, we must, if we desire to obtain
any influence in Turkey, act as little in conjunction
with Russia as possible.
Since the above was written we have received advices
which state that the Porte, at the instance of the Bri-
tish and French Ambassadors at Constantinople, had
ordered the Turkish army to re-cross the Euphrates,
and abstain from all further acts of hostility. They
further assure us that despatches to this effect were ad-
dressed to the Consuls-General in Egypt for the infor-
mation of the VICEROY. Whether this be so or no,
we continue to think a war in that quarter, for another
year at least, as improbable as ever.

' The rumoured intelligence of war in the East, and
the adroitness with which the Government turned it
to account to add a fresh item to the Ordinary Budget,
are the principal objects of discussion in the Paris
journals of Sunday. The grant for increasing the fleet
in the Mediterranean is net, however, condemned in
any of the liberal journals ; but the Courrier Francais
offers to take a wager that when the French ships of
war are required in the Bosphorus, they will be cruising
the mouth of the Tagus. What course that journal
would recommend the Government of Louts PHILIPPE
to pursue, will appear from the following extract :
" It is not enough to have ships, men, and artillery,
France must know who is her ally, and who is her enemy.
As to her adopting coercive measures, blockading the
Dardanelles or Alexandria, destroying the fleet of the
Sultan or of the Pasha, it would be the height of
cowardice and injustice. France ought to remain neutral
in the struggle ; she must be satisfied with offering her
mediation ; she has no ri4,ht to impose it. If hostilities
have commenced, let God decide; the Mussulmans
must be allowed freely to choose between the two
empires and the two chiefs. We should beware of in-
flicting a deathblow on the Turkish empire, already so
weakened by the encroachments and intrigues of Russia.
Egypt, whose territory is coveted by England, is our ally,
like all other infant nations forming maritime establish-
ments on the shores of the Mediterranean. Public opinion
would curse the authors ofa second Navarino. Safety and
honour require that Russia be compelled to observe a strict
neutrality in the struggle, and prevented from again land-
ing troops in Constantinople.
In the Chamber of Peers on Saturday the first
article of a Copy-Right Bill was adopted. The dis-
cussion upon it was fixed for Monday.
The Chamber of Deputies was engaged with plans
for the better fortification of Paris ! What a satire
upon the best of all possible Governments—a Mo-
narchy surrounded with Republican institutions.
Madrid Papers, of the 19th instant, have been re-
ceived. Their moat important contents are anticipated
by the following telegraphic despatch received by the
French Government :

" PERPIGNAN, MAY 24, EVENING.—On the 18th riots
took place in Valencia, barricades were constructed, and
the National Guard fought against the troops of the line.
The motive of this emeule was the dissolution of the Cortes,
and the independence of the kingdoms of Aragon, Va-
lencia, and Murcia. On the 20th tranquillity was re-
stored. Seven thousand Infantry and five hundred Ca-
valry of the division of General Asnau had entered at
Liria. On the 19th Cabrera was near Chelva."
Except the subjoined paragraphs there is no other
news of interest in these papers :
A letter from Algiers, dated the 17th of this month, and
written by a person worthy of credit, contains the follow-
ing sentence :—." A conspiracy has been discovered at
Constantine, the object of which was to massacre the
French. This conspiracy was discovered just in time. The
ringleaders are arrested. No details of this event are yet
known, but nothing is more certain."
More arrests took place at Paris yesterday.
A letter from Avignon of 18th May, in the Ino, a Mar-
seilles journal, says :—" There has just been found on a
suspected individual a list of the names of a hundred and
fifty young men, said to form part of a certain conspiracy,
armed at the expense of some such persons. Domiciliary
visits have been made, in which some arms have been seized
and some persons arrested.—Le Constitutionnel.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-(THIS DAY

The House sat to-day to hear Scotch appeals. The
Peers present were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Montford,
and Lord Charlemont.

EWING V. BURNS.
The further arguments in this part-heard appeal, from
the decision of tile Court of Session, occupied their Lord-
ships the whale morning. The question in this case was,
whether certain lands in the vicinity of Glasgow, called
Ramshorn and Meadow flat, were liable to be assessed for
the relief of the poor of the parish. The appellants arc
the Lord Provost and the members of tho Town Council
of Glasgow, who are in possession of the land in question ;
and the respondents are the clergyman of the parish and
the collector of the poor-rates there. Upon the case
coming on before the Court of Session, that Court decided
that the lands were liable to be assessed, and from tha
decision the present appeal was brought.
The arguments were proceeding when our Re
VIC

sorter left.

E-CHANCERYTJ(TiIIIS DAY

Cause petitions of no interest occupied his Honour the
Vice-Chancellor the whole day.

BAIL COURT.---:(THIDAY.)
_

THE QUEEN V. WM. JOHNSON.
The defendant in this case, who is a cotton-spinner, had
been committed to the House of Correction, at Brixton, for
six weeks, to hard labour, for having on the 9th of May,
left certain work unfinished and quitted the service of his
employer. Two objections were taken to the commitment,
first that it set forth an offence over which the Magistrate
had no jurisdiction, the defendant not coming with the de-
scription of servant ; and secondly, that the punishment
was not warranted by tke statute under which the convic-
tion took place. A rule had been granted to show cause
why he should not be discharged from custody.
Mr. CHAMBERS was heard in support of the rule and
Mr. C. JONES against it—Judgment deferred.

THE QUEEN V. VVEI3II.
Mr. BAILEY moved fora rule to show cause why a man.
damus should not issue against Mr. James Webb, a Corm
missioner for enclosing certain lands in the County o
Salop, to compel him to make an award to Mr. Maddox.—
Rule granted.