The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-29 00:00:00

that the Government had received no official intimation
of the Turkish troops I wing crossed the Euphrates,
that he had never hoard, and did not believe, that Rus-
sia had required MEHEMET ALI to withdraw from
Syria, and that there was• nothing to show that the ef-
forts of the great Powers to preserve the peace would not
be successful.
In reply to Mr. FINCH, Lord J. RUSSELL said, that
all the accusations lately made against the Children's
Friend Society, would be strictly investigated. He
beliived that the Society had been most attentive to
particular cases.
As to public business the Noble Lord stated that
on Monday he should submit resolutions concerning
Canada, approving generally of the Union between the
provinces, and that he should take the discussion on
these resolutions on Monday week ; should they be
affirmed he will then bring in a Bill. He is to move
the County Courts Bill on Friday, and the ATTORNEY-
GENERAL on the same day is to move the Committee on
the Registration of Electors Bills. He hoped shortly to
bring forward the Factories and the Metropolitan
Police Bills.

In about a fortnight the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
CHEQUER Will know when he can bring forward the
Budget, and at that period he means to move Resolu-
tions on the subject of Postage, founded on the recom-
mendations of the Committee of last year.
The Poor Law Amendment Act, Lord JOHN
RUSSELL means to propose, shall be continued for an-
other year almost unaltered.
The Education question, Lord J. RUSSELL explained,
is only to be postponed to give time to lay some further
information before the House. He means to move the
grant, notwithstanding the opposition of Tories and
Methodists, in the terms ho before announced.
The SPEAKER has already had some of the most im-
port ant duties of his office to perform. In the course
of the evening he called Mr. HAWES to order for ac-
cusing Sir M. WOOD of making loose statements ; and
a Mr. LOVIBOND having procured a petition to be pre-
sented to the House against a Private Bill with a forged
signature, was ordered to be reprimanded, which repri-
mand Mr. LEFEYRE immediately administered. The
Right Hon. Gentleman's conduct elicited the cheers of
the House.

Shortly after eight o'clock the House was counted out.

The country will be delighted to observe that on

the very first business day after the Whitsuntide
Holidays, the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER
intimated that in bringing forward the Budget he
would propose a measure in accordance with the re-
commendation of the Select Committee on Postage.
We really wish the Right Hon. Gentleman had
been more explicit, and had announced distinctly
that his Budget would contain a recommendation of
Mr. ROWLAND HILL'S plan of penny postage in
all its integrity. This is what the country has de-
manded, and we know that this has been distinctly
promised by Ministers to the leading Members of
the Postage Committee ; but since Mr. SPRING
RICE has taken it upon himself to announce the
measure in ambiguous terms, we strenuously re-
commend that petitions should be poured into
both Houses of Parliament until the Government
shall be pledged, in unequivocal language, to adopt
the clear and simple plan proposed by Mr. HILL,
and urged on as it has been in a manner so unpre-
cedented, by the whole body of the people.
The City of London will hold its great meeting
on Friday, and that powerful body will no doubt
swell the list of petitioners for the immediate and
complete adoption of universal penny postage. We
say—" Let all go, and do likewise."

We adverted yesterday to the arrogant claims of
the priesthood to control the education and the
knowledge of the community, and we shall speedily
supply proofs of their having already so neglected
their duty on this point as to be unworthy of being
consulted. Convicted culprits are never allowed to
make laws for honest men.
First we will observe that the petition of the
University of Oxford is expressly directed against
the Ministerial plan, because " laymen are exclu-
sively entrusted with such important duties" as will
belong to the Committee of the Privy Council, and
" because no provision is made that the Committee
shall hereafter consist of Members of the Church of
England," showing that these gentlemen have
little or nothing to object to the plan, but that they
are not to control it, or be placed in a situation to
pervert it, as they have done the Church revenues,
to their own private emolument. The same senti-
ment pervades all the petitions which we have seen
on the subject, and which seem all to have been
coined in the ecclesiastical mint. " Your peti-
tioners," says one of these spurious expressions of
public opinion, to which great efforts are made to
procure signatures in Islington, "_regard with the
greatest apprehension the attempt to place the
whole education of the poor in the hands of the
Board, consisting wholly of official laymen, and
from which the heads of the Church are purposely
excluded." The crying sin of the Ministerial
plan in the eyes of the priests and their adherents,
is, that they are excluded from the management and
controul of it. Having furnished additional evi-
dence, if any evidence were wanted, of their
unbounded arrogance, we now proceed to examine
their conduct.
We remarked, yesterday, that the priesthood
have had, on this point, for many years, an undis-
puted empire over the public mind. In connection
with that, it must be remembered, that England, by
her isolated position, has been secured from all
foreign invasion. There has been no circumstance,
since 1745, which could impede the peaceful pro-
secution, by our priesthood, of the useful, honour-
able, and laborious task, if they were inclined to
fulfil that duty, of educating, instructing, and
improving, the whole people. They have had
ample means and ample time. We beg that
these two circumstances, of the unbounded
power possessed by the priesthood, and the un-
interrupted enjoyment of that power and their
revenue, may be borne in mind,tecause no opinion
of the merits of a priesthood can be formed except
by comparison ; and while our priesthood have been
secured in the full and peaceful enjoyment of their
revenues, and while no person has been allowed to
question their doctrines, the priesthood of the Conti-
nental nations have been deprived of much of their
wealth, their countries have been overrun by foreign
invaders, and their doctrines have been freely and
even unscrupulously questioned. What under
these favourable and under these adverse circum-
stances have the priesthood of England and
the priesthood of the Continent done for the edp-
cation of their respective people ? Whatever the
respective Governments of Belgium and Holland,
of Germany, and of the rest of Europe may have
done within the period, must be included in the
comparison, because our priesthood have had un-
bounded power over the State, and whatever they
had suggested, and, in particular, whatever they
had earnestly desired on the score of educating the
people, from the accession of GEORGE 111. to the
year 1830, would have been most certainly accom-
plished. We shall not, however, have occasion to
insist pertinaciously on this, because it
.is a matter
of fact that the comparatively poor priesthood of
Germany have been active in promoting the general
improvement which our priesthood have attempted
to stifle.