The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-22 00:00:00

of the industrious and frugal 11 to keep what he
has honestly acquired, is confused en] perplexed by
being described under the same term as rent, which
i, now the fruit of the starvat;oii laws, and as
tithes, salaries, and innsims, which have no more
validity than the decrees of an ignorant, a bar-
narous, or a corrupt Legislature.

We call attention to an article which we extract
from the Aylesbury News concerning Lord Nu-
GENT, and his pretensions to ri-present A6esbury,
which is written with so much more knowledge than
we possess on the subject, that it quite supersedes
any remarks we might be disposed to make. We
shall only say that as far as the popular cause was
concerned (with the engagements between the Noble
Lord and Mr.. CA\TENDIsII we cannot meddle),
his own letter satisfied us completely that his Lord-
ship was acting a most unworthy part.

The Bill for reducing the Postage to One Penny,
and making the rate of payment uniform, will be
found in another part of The Sun. Our readers
will observe that no time is fixed by the Bill for

the measure coming into operation. It is all left
to the Treasury, and the commencement of
the alteration will depend on the time required for
making the necessary arrangements. In what state
of forwardness they may be we know not, but we
fear that several weeks, not to say months, will
elapse before the country receives the benefit of this
only useful measure of the Session.

It is supposed that, in consequence of Mr.
DARBY having carried a clause on Saturday,
making a great alteration in the Poor-law, that
the measure for continuing the Commission will be
given up for this Session. As the Commission
lasts till the end of next Session, less inconvenience
will probably result from this course, than from the

House of Commons now undertaking to decide such
a very important question as that which has been
mooted by Nr. DARBY.

The success with which the exertions of the
Scottish Dissenters to prevent the monopoly of
Bible-printing from being continued i❑ that part of
.the kingdom have been crowned, is a severe rebuke
to the listlessness of the English Dissenters,
who seem to think, that the Universities, those
hot-beds of bigotry, exclusiveness, and intolerance,
will, out of pure love for them, generously relin-
quish the invidious privilege which they hare
so long enjoyed of printing the Bible, and admit their
Nonconformist brethren to that equal participation in
it to which they are i❑ justice entitled. This, at
least, is the conclusion which appearances would
lead one to draw from the supineness with which
the Established Sect is permitted to dole out the
Scriptures to the rest of the community, in what-
ever quantities, and at whatever prices it. pleases.
We tell the Dissenters plainly, that this tame ac-
quiescence in a matter touching not merely sec-
tarian feelings and prejudices, but the highest in-
terests of man—involved as these interests are
in the circulation of the word of GOD, is
very far from creditable to them as a body of
Christians. What steps, we should like to be in-
formed, have any of those Associations which start
up with mushroom rapidity, apparently for no
other purpose than. to delude the honest and zea-
lous part of the Dissenting community, and then
to die an inglorious death—what measures have
any of them taken to get rid of the Bible-printing
monopoly ? They inscribe " Civil and Religious
Liberty" on their banners, and sound a loud flourish
of trumpets, but where is the practical good—
where-the real benefit to the " cause," which can be
said to have resulted from their exertions?

What object there can be in confining the print-
ing of the Holy Scriptures to the Universities, or
in limiting it at all, is to us utterly inconceivable.
We can hardly suppose that there can be enter-
tained even among the cloistered tenants of Oxford,
a wish to circumscribe, as much as possible, the
dissemination of the Old and New Testa-
ments, whatever hostility may be felt to the
extension of education and the diffusion of know-
ledge. Yet that the monopoly has this effect there
cannot- be a shadow of doubt, for it is of the very
essence of a monopoly that it should enhance the
price of the commodity in which it deals. The
reason which is sometimes assigned for the exclu-
sive privilege of the Universities, is eminently
absurd, and has been proved by facts and experience
to be directly contrary to truth. If the Scriptures,
it is alleged, were to be allowed to be printed by
anybody there would be no security against
incorrect editions being published. Now, what
is the fact ? Why, that there are thousands of
deviations from the standard version—thousands
of mistakes in the privileged Bibles ; and that the
unprivileged editions—for such is the consistent
wisdom of our practice in this matter that any one
may publish an edition of the Bible provided
he add notes—are infinitely more correct
than those for the accuracy of which the clerical
monopoly is held to be a perfect and, at the same
time, an indispensable guarantee.
We are sorry that the Government should have
left even a remnant of the old restrictive system in

Scotland. It ought to have been completely shat-
tered to pieces, and the printing of the Bible,
as of other works, left open to competition,
which is a much better security for accuracy
and every other requisite, than monopoly can be.
Practically speaking, however, there is little to
complain of. All that any printer in Scotland now
has to do, is to get a Minister of any denomination
to vouch for the text of the edition about to be

printed being that of the authorised version, and
the Lord Advocate must grant him a license to
print and publish. This may be done with so little
difficulty, that it is, in reality, a mere matter of
form.

Letters and papers from Madrid of the 13th inst.
have been received, but their contents are of no inte-
rest. The Liberal Journals, were very violent in their
attacks upon the Government, but notwithstanding fears
to the contrary. nothing had occurred to disturb the
peace of the capital.

The French Chamber of Peers is in high dudgeon at
the conduct of the KING in commuting the capital
sentence pronounced by it upon the revolutionist
BARBE 3. According to a statement which appears in
the Message). of Saturday, which we have received,
together with the other Paris Journals of that and the
previous da3's date, a great number of the Peers,
with M. MOLE at their bead, have signified to the Mi-
nister of Justice that it is not their intention to assist at
any future criminal prosecution. This course on the
part of the Chamber is extremely impolitic and indecent.
It is an attempt to rob the KING of the brightest jewel
in his crown—the prerogative of mercy ; a prerogative
which the Peers well know Louts PIDLIPPE is in no
danger of abusing. The Court of Peers, like JONAH
denouncing judgment against the Ninevites, is jealous
of its honour ; as if it was expected to pronounce any
other verdict than that prescribed by law ! This is
very silly, and very short-sighted ; but we shall be glad
if the KING take the Peers at their word, and trust for
the future to the loyalty and impartiality of a jury.
On Friday afternoon the King and Queen of the
BELGIANS arrived at St. Cloud, where the King of the
FRENCH and the members of the Royal Family are at
present residing.
Letters from the head-quarters of Don CARLOS, of
the 13th inst., state that Lords RANELAGH and MAN-
NERS, and the Marquis of GRANBY, were among the
foreign magnates at the Court of the Usurper. A
letter from Cp.rcassonne, near the Spanish frontier, con-
tains the following intelligence, which is confirmed in a
more recent account

" News has been received on the frontiers of the Eas-
tern Pyrenees, announcing that an affair had taken place i
between the troops of General Valdez and the Compte
d'Espagne, in which the latter had been wounded by a hall
in the left shoulder.
" It is reported that Valdez, having sent a foraging
party under the escort of 1,200 men, imagined that the
Compte d'Espagne would attack them, and had followed
with a larger force at some distance, intending to surround
the rebels: What he had foreseen took place, and Valdez,
after killing and wounding a great number, retired with
300 prisoners."
A petition was presented to the Chamber of Depu-
ties on Thursday, praying that steps might be taken to
compel the British Authorities in the West Indies to
restore French fugitive slaves who were daily escaping
to our free colonies. To the great credit of the Chamber
it was received with marks of general disapprobation,
several of the Deputies declaring that time protection
afforded to fugitive slaves by Great Britain was as
creditable to the humanity, as cons stent with the liberal
and enlightened prineintes professed by this country.
__ BOURSE—nods, SATURDAY, JULY 20.