The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

• The usury laws are at length, it seems, on the
point of being-modified,—that is to say, unless the
House of Lords should (as it often has) frustrate the
resolutions of the other House of Parliament and tht
wishes of a large portion of the most intelligent
persons out of doors. Mr. Poulett Thompson
carried, on Monday last, by a majority of 50 to 21,
the second reading of a Bill fee the amendment of
the laws against usury ; and, strange to add, the
majority of the more eminent lawyers in the House
of Commons, who are generally found the most im-
moveable pillars of all ancient existences, were
amongst the supporters of the measure. Mr. P.
Thomson—if fault be attributed to him—has erred
in not carrying his alterations far enough, lie re-
mits the penalty for higher interest than five per
cent., but he does not, in one extensive class of cases,
give the contract stipulating the payment of such
interest any further sanction than that of exempting
the parties from punishment. For instance, A may
borrow 10,0004 on mortgage, at six per cent., and
B may innocently receive that rate of interest ;
hut, should the interest run into arrear, and the
lender, consequently, sue the borrower, he cannot
recover more than five per cent. Now this is an
odd sort of contract. If the intention of the
Honourable mover be to let money find its own
level, this clause defeats the very principle of
the Bill. If, again, the Honourable Gentleman
means to relieve the landed proprietors from
embarrassment, by authorizing them to de that
legally,—viz., borrow money at the market-price
in times when money is not abundant,—which
they now find practicable only through an evasion of
the law, by means of exorbitant interest in the form
of annuity, again we must remind him that he has
failed of his purpose, for the capitalists will not lend
at 6 or 7 per cent, interest, whieh cannot be en-
forced by law, when an interest of 18 or 20 per
sent. can be procured through the annuity process.
This, we repeat, continues the worst part of the in-
convenience which, when Cie market-price of money
wos high, has hitherto beset the individual com-
pelled to borrow. Men will not lend wider a fac-
titious and aggravated risk of losing their interes!-
money ; and the law which authorizes the contract
which it refuses to enforce, is, to say the least of it,
but a clumsy piece of legislation. The principal,
indeed, is protected by the new Bill, and that is
something, but not yet sufficient. One effect of
giving more freedom to the trade in money must bee
as in all other cases, a reduction in the market -price
of the commodity ; so that if the country gen,lemen
and the Lords are wise, they will let the Bill pass
with as little noise as may be.—Times.
It is not without reason that the Catholic Church
has always opposed itself to the circulation of the
criptures in the vulgar tongue. Its most ingenious
champion, Count Le Maistre, tells us that " it
hates discussion, and when forced into the field,
always wishes to keep the people from interfering
with the dispute. It speaks in preference in Latin,
and addresses itself only to the learned. All sects,
. on the contrary, have need of the mob, and especially.
of women. The Jansenists wrote in French, and
this is a new conformity which they hail with their
cousins (the Calvinists.) The same spirit of religi-
ous democracy led them to poison us with their
translations of the Sacred Scriptures and Rituals.
They translated even the Missal to contradict Rome,
which for evident reasons has always disliked these
translations." The reason of this dislike of the
Church of Rome to translations of the Bible may
be discovered without much difficulty by any one
who witnesses the consequences of Bible reading
among ourselves. Let any one, for instance, after
a preparation of a perusal of the four Evange-
lists, turn to the account of the discussion in
the House of Commons last night, on the
presentation of the petition from the county
and city of Cork, by Mr. King, in which it
was stated by Mr. Baring, that some of the
Episcopal Revenues would amount in a short time
to 100,0001. a-year (he alluded, we believe, to the
Diocese of London), and he cannot fail to become
convinced of the incompatibility of such a state of
things with the whole of the lessons of Christ.—
Even with the explanation of Dr. Lushingtoe, that
" with respect to some of the Sees amounting to
100,000/. a year, lie begged to remind the House,
that when a private Bill had passed to enable the
Archbishop of Canterbury to borrow money on the
security of his See, for the improvement of the
estates, his income was proved to -be 32,000/. a
year, and this was the largest episcopal income in
England. The Bis'oop of London's income was
22,0001. although it might increase by building on
his lands." Now allowing that Canterbury is only
32,000/. a year and London 22,000/. (though it is
confidently affirmed by will-informed persons that
London must soon be 100,0001., and Canterbury,
from the same cause, far above 32,0001.), still it
does sound strange that be whose kingdom was not
of this world, and who wished all men to be meek
and lowly of spirit, should be pleased with the ex-
istence of this Episcopal grandeur. Man bath found
out many inventions : but no invention was ever
more ingenious than that of reconciling this scheme
of Church policy with the scheme of the Gospel.
It may be excellent worldly policy, and may answer
much better than the morality-of the Gospel, for
the management of Parliament; but then the cir-
culation and perusal of the Scriptures enables every
one to see that the Church, which has Princes en-
joying 100,0001. a year, cannot be a Christian
Church. Hit be declared in.the Scriptures, that it
is as impossible for a rich matt to enter the kingdom
as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
what are we to think of a Church, of ‘thieh the
Dignitaries, those to whom the nublic look up for
example, exist in a state which excludes them from
heaven ? Before the French Revolution the French
Bishops kept Opera girls, and indulged in all the
gaieties Which. are compatible with the morality of
fashionable life ; but then these Bishops were not
such fools as to favour the circulation of a
volume inculcating a morality condemnatory
of their own conduct. This inconsistency is
reserved for the Protestant Church of Eng-
land. A Pastor of the Church of Christ with
100,0001. a-year The heads of the Church to be
in the very state which the Founder of the Church
loudly condemned! Is it not in all the writings of
Vie Christians of the first ages, who were imbued
with' the spirit of the Divine Author of their Faith,
again and again made a criterion of a true Christian
Pastor, that he despised riches, and of a Heretic that
he received money ? It was deemed a sufficient
confutation of Montanus, that, under pretence and
colour of oblations, he had cunningly invented the
sit of bribery—that he grave great hire unto the
preachers of bis doctrine, that by feeding of the
paunch his prophecies might prevail. Doth not
the whole Scripture forbid that a Prophet. should
receive rewards and money Doth not Christ
command " that you shall not possess gold,
neither silver, neither two coats, &c. Mais nous
avow change tout cola! So it seems. The best
Christian Pastors now are they who best fleece the
sheep.. The practices at Jaggernaut may in time
be deelared Christian. However, one consequence
of the evangelical spirit which has been fostered by
Scripture reading, is the strong desire felt by many
within the bosom of foe Church to introduce into
it such changes as may place it less in hostility with
the doctrines of the founder of Christianity. Hence
the petition from Cork, signed by 6000 Protestants
and 58 Magistrates! They wish to banish exces-
sive wealth and excessive poverty from the establish-
ment, by a better distribution of its resources. This
is the quarter from which danger to the Church may
be expected. In vain will Ministers urge the necessity
for possessing large revenues, in order to bribe the
possessors of political influence. Religion does not
recognize this prostitution. Even Mr. Baring,
" who was the last man to wish to See the Church
put under the correction of the Hon. Member for
Montrose," admitted " that the difference Of income
was too great, and those who said this case could
rot be dealt with by Parliament, did very little to
promote the true interests of the Church; and be

wished tto see a more equal distribution of its
property." We are mistaken if the feeling of the
Cork petitioners is not spreading fast within the
Church itself. There cannot be a better test of the
growth of a religious spirit than the increasing desire
to reform the establishment.—Morning Chronicle.
In the House of Commons last night'Mr. O'Con-
nell brought forward his motion for leave to bring
in a Bill to amend the Irish Vestries Act. His pro-
posed a;nendinent, the object of which was to give
to Roman Catholic; the right of voting in Vestries
on Church Rates, &c. wt.s judiciously devised. The
aim of the lion. Member for Clare is sufficiently
obvious, and it is superfluous to observe that the
adoption of such a measure by the Legislature would
be the death-warrant of the Protestant Church in
Ireland. The proposition itself s regard as a
necessary consequence of the Catholic Relief Bill;
it is the preparation for another step in the march
of encroachment upon the Protestant Establish-
ments of the Empire; and ie the circumstance of its
having been introduced thus early, we have ample
evidence that the Catholics will not be remiss or
dilatory ill following Hp the advantages they have
already gained. Notwithstanding the triumphant
majority, 177 to 47, by which the motion of last
night was negatived, there can be but little ground
for hope that the principle of it will ultimately be
successfully resisted. Unwilling as we are prema-
turely to renew the discussion on this subject, we
cannot but repeat our apprehension that the measure
of last Session has opened the way for unlimited
inroad, and that the Catholics of Ireland, led on as
they have been, and still are, by turbulence and
faction, will be satisfied with no concession short of
that which shall give absolute supremacy to their
Church.—Morning Post.
The House of Commons announced a new ex-
periment on Monday night—by permitting a Bill to
be read for the repeal of the usury laws. Thus
step by step they advance, pulling down every safe-
guard, levelling every defence, repealing every pro-
tectire law. The repeal of the usury laws is another
blow at the landed interest, long threatened, but now
struck, by their implacable enemies, the mercan-
tilists.—lt is true that in the present state of the
country the mortgaged landowner has little to fear
from the lender of money. The returns of trade
do not tempt the capitalist to embark in any com-
mercial or manufacturing speculation. Pawn-
broking is at present the only .thriving business.
To buy and sell stolen goods is a better trade than
that of building colleges. The profits upon ship-
ping and farming are inadequate where any pro-
fits are received at all. For these and other

reasons the supply of unemployed capital is
enormous, and far greater than the demand. It is,
consequently, thrust into the funds—lent out upon
bills at 2} or 3 per cent.—or locked up in strong
chests at home or in the Bank of England. Hence
is it that the borrower has nothing at present to
fear from the lender. The country gentleman has
no dread of his mortgage being disturbed or
,an in-
mased usance being demanded, for the rate of in-
terest is at present lower in the market than the

legal maximum. But is this state of things to con-
tinue for ever.? if we are ever to have prosperity
again prices must rise, and so also must wages and
profits. A rise of profits leads to new investment,
and thus money is drawn from the funds and from it•
hiding places, and employed in trade, in the cultiva-
tion of the soil, in the augmentation of farm stock, in
shipping, in planting, in building►, and in other ways
innumerable. When this takes place the value of
money and the interest of money naturally increases.
if six per cent. can be procured in any safe way the
cap;talia will not lend upon mortgage ev(n at five
per cent. Three-fourths of all the land of England
are more or less fettered by mortgages. The re-
moval of restraint, or, in other words, the repeal
of the usury laws, will place all this land at the
mercy of the lawyers. Conveyancing is a lucrative
business; and a threat to foreclose will be the har-
binger of usury and extortion. Rather than seek
a less rapacious lender, and incur the expense of
fresh deeds and new stamps, the poor landowner
and small proprietor will be glad to pay increased
interest, perhaps six or seven per cent. Thus
the squire, instead of visiting his lawyer twice a
year, will be compelled to keep one entirely for him-
self. The attorneys will then be the only aristocracy,
and the large capitalists a sort of petty sovereigns
holding in leash every poor devil whose father had

the misfortune to borro-w money for the purpose of
improving his estate. This is a most scandalous
Bill, but it is like all ,the other measures of the
present unreformed House of Commons. For the
sake of our country we pray God it may not pass
into a law, but we fear it will not meet any effectual
resistance. The couutry gentlemen are now like
their own pheasants with their wings clipped—they
can neither fly nor fight. They are as much at the
mercy of the money-changers as a wretched drab
of Drury-lane is at that of the contiguous pawn-
broker. Perhaps some of them merit the degrada-
tion, but we pity the young heir and his little
brothers and sisters. If this Bill pass few of them,
we fear, will have much cause to keep more than
half of the commandment—honour their mother
they may, but honour their father they cannot !
Morning Journal.
The additional duty which the Chancellor of the
Exchequer proposes to lay on homemade spirits has
already begun to call forth a great deal of opposi-
tion in Ireland, and on the other side of the Tweed.

It is not merely the distillers who consider their in-
terests compromised by the proposed measure; the
land-owners regard it as no less detrimental to the
interests of agriculture, and make common cause
with them. There is no doubt that the object of
the Government in laying this additional tax on the
home manufacture is to relieve the West India
planters—an object which in itself would be wise
and politic, considering the great deterioration which
West India produce has of late years undergone, if
extending such relief to the Colonies did not ope•
rate injuriously towards the parent country, or in-
volve any breach of faith with those who more im-
mediately suffer by the increased impost on the
native manufacture. Now, it is certain that a few
years ago, after very mature deliberation, Govern-
ment came to the conclusion that it was just and
necessary to protect the home spirit trade by mak-
ing the duty on rum ls. 6d. higher than that on
corn spirits, and accordingly, having fixed the duty
on the latter at 7s. the imperial gallon;they settled
the tax on the former at Bs. 6d. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer, by his forthcoming measure, proposes
to leave the duty on rum unaltered, and raise that on
the corn spirits to Bs.—thus reducing the difference
between the taxation on the home and Colonial spirits
from Is. 6d. to 6d. This alteration in the relative taxa-

tion of the two articles the distillers charge upon the
Government as a breach of faith, for they allege that
on the faith of that arrangement, wade by the Go-
vernment after due inquiry, and sanctioned by the
Legislature, large capitals have been noisessarily in-
vested by the distillers, to adapt their premises to
the regulations then intro.luced ; and they go on to
say, that as it was necessary at that time to fix the
duty on rum at Is. 6d. a gallon higher than that on
corn spirits in England, it follows that, in order to
preserve good faith, the same proportionate scale
should be adhered to, unless it is distinctly proved
that by a change of circumstances a departure from
it is absolutely necessary ; and they deny that such
a change of circumstances has been :proved. So
stands the question between the Government and
the distillers; the latter of whom state, upon the
evidence of official returns, that, ever since the year
182.5, when this relative scale of duties was settled,
the consumption of rum, instead of diminishing un-
der a tax higher by the amount of Is. 6d. in the
gallon than home-made spirits, has steadily Ili-
cleased ; and that, in the twelve months ending the
sth of January last, it has exceeded that of the pre-
ceding year by 237,827 gallons, while the con-
sumption of corn spirits has, during the same
period, decreased 68,923 gallons. It is, there-
fore, a natural and unavoidable inference, that
'f so large an increase of the consumption
°f rum has taken place while it bore a

higher duty by Is. 6(1. than corn spirits, there
will be a much greater comparative increase of con-
sumption of the Colonial article when that difference
between the two duties shall have been reduced to
6d. Here then is a question as between these two
parties, involving an accusation of the unjust
sacrifice of the capital and property of a particular
class, by a violation of good faith. But there ire
also a third party—the country at large; • and
the question between the Government and the
country assumes a different form. We are aware that
when the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to
raise the duty on hoine-made spirits, some persons
gave the Government credit for so directing their
financial operations as to shape a question of revenue
beneficially for the morals of the people. A littte
reflection would have divested this subject, in all
but the eyes of the merest idolators of power, of
any such moral complexion ; for as rum, when in-
temperately indulged in, is justas likely to produce
demoralizing effects as whiskey or gin, the same
anxious solicitude for the morals and health of the
people that caused the Government to raise the duty
upon one description of spirits would have equally
induced them to raise it on the other; But it is
quite evident that the Executive were not so desirous
to repress the predilection fur ardent spirits as to give
the taste for such indulgence a new direction, and,
by not a moral but a poldical application of the en-
gine of fiscal regulation, make ruin more palatable
than British spirits. Then, leaving the interests of
morality, as we must, out of view, and also forget-
ting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is himself
a large West India proprietor, let us see how the
question stands as between the Government and the
country. It seems that the distiller now consumes
in his manufacture a great quantity of the inferior
wheat arid inferior barley, whc't is fit for little or
nothing else, and, of course, with any considerable
fall in the consumption of corn spirits, must become
unsaleable. In such an event oats also must ra-
pidly sink in demand, and consequently in price,
and much land be thrown out of cultivationes—
No person will venture to say that such conse-
quences would not materially affect the interests
of the country. Agriculture is at present in that
state of decline which can bear little more de-
pres4on without spreading extensive, if not ge-
nera ruin, among the landowners and farmers.
It wants encouragement—but here is a mea-
sure that, if the data founded upon the official
documents be correct, is calculated to put it under
a much heavier pressure, and to impair the chalices
of a return of prosperity. For a formal statement
of the case of the corn distillers, we refer to the
resolutions passed at the meeting of the county of
Dublin, in another part of our columns, which reso-
lutions were argued and supported by several indi-
viduals of rank, opulence, and respectability. Other
county meetings on the same subject are threatened
and thus the tax of the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, if it turn fertile fields into barrenness, w 11
at least, be prolific in Irish agitation.— Morn. herald