The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(From tke Times.)

1 .
La haute politique is all very well in its way, but
life is made up of small pleasures and small pains ;
it is only once or twice in the course of a man's
earthly career that he is called upon to contend
with earthquakes, waterfalls, whirlwinds, and such-
like convulsions, either in the moral or physical
world. Besides, when such great calamities do
come, it is over one way or another in half an hour.
We would put it to the most enthusiastic devotee
of Exeter-hall—has he in the course of his life suf-
fered more from Cardinal Wiseman or smoky chim-
neys ?—from tough mutton or the assumption of
ecclesiastical titles on the part of the Roman clergy?
Whatever fate may befal us, let us at least not
await it in tight boots ! Great politicians are some-
times
careless enough of the thousand minutice of
every-day life which afford us either pain or plea-
sure during every moment of waking consciousness,
and we would, therefore, take leave to remind them
that State policy, like charity, should begin at
home. With regard to the social and sanitary con-
dition of this great town for example, there are
many points of the most vital importance which
should not be lost sight of, whatever may be the
pressure of other questions. The first condition of
life is to live ; the second, to live healthily, free,
as far as the liabilities of mortality will permit,
from disease which should never have been con-
tracted, and from unnecessary suffering of any
kind. Every local arrangement that can conjure
away'pestilence and fever from our habitations, and
draw out the sting from passing epidemics, is, or
should be, to this vast conglomeration of brick,
mortar, and humanity, a subject second to no other
in interest. It is not, however, our purpose to-day
to enter into the fouler mysteries of modern
Babylon, in which-
- "Pleased with the silent growth of ten per cent.
In dirt and darkness thousands stink content."
For once the polluted churchyards of the metro-
- polis shall reek in peace ; the gullyholes pour
forth their pestilential effluvia without let or hin-
drance ; the "great companies" supply our dwell-
ing-houses with floods of drab liquid teeming with
animal life under the profaned name of water ;
the neglected sewers foster disease under the very '
room in which we sleep. For the moment let all
this pass; we turn to other matters of less importance
indeed, but still such as exercise no inconsiderable
influence upon the comfort of those who dwell in
London, or who visit London either for their busi-
ness or their pleasure. They are minor miseries,
such as drove Horace and Boileau in their days
to pour forth anathemas upon Rome and Paris.
Would that either of them were now forthcoming to
shame the Commissioners of Police and all other
persons whom it may concern into immediate and
effective action !
Now, there are the advertising vans—enor-
mous wooden fabrics plastered or pasted over
with announcements about " Eureka Shirts,"
" Safety Braces," " Transcendental Strops," and
the newest volcano in combustion at the Surrey
Zoological Gardens. Is it at all compatible with
the safety or comfort of any person who is com-
pelled to frequent the great public thoroughfares
that these monstrous edifices should be slowly
dragged along the streets ? In the first place, they
frighten the horses—and no wonder. Any candid
man would acknowledge that if he were a horse,
and consequently unable to decypher print or to
appreciate pictorial art, he would feel uncomfortaUle
if an attempt were made to whip him past oneof
these threatening portents. In the next place
they choke the passage. Can anything be more
aggravating to a wretched creature who has but
just time sufficent to " save the rail" than to be
stopped behind one of these prodigies, which offici-
ously recommend him to make trial of the "Hydro-
dynamic Filterer," or to visit the " Ekkaleobian "
in Leicester-square, as if that would better his case?
It must be remembered that the interest of the pro-
prietors of these machines is adverse to that of the
public. We want to move on ; the order to their
drivers is to create stoppages in the principal
thoroughfares at the busiest hours of the day. In
their generation they are wise enough, for so they
secure more and more aggravated readers. As
many as nine of these huge vans have been seen in
the Strand, one standing still after the other, while
the pulsation of traffic was arrested. Surely this is
no fantastic grievance.
Space would fail us if we were to run through
the whole catalogue of what it would be an abuse
of language to call "minor nuisances." We there-
fore only select two or three items for illustration,
and must return to the subject from time to time.
From great thoroughfares let us pass to the great
bridges, which as at present stand thus :
Vauxhall—toll. Blackfriars—free,
Westminster—tumble• tottering.
down. Southwark—toll.
Hungerford—toll. • London—free.
Waterloo—toll.
London-bridge, in fact, is the only existing struc-
ture in a respectable condition by which a Lon-
doner can cross the Thames free • and its pavement
gives many a gloomy moment to those who drive
or ride over it. Surely something might be done
towards buying up the tolls, and putting the two
banks of the river into gratis communication with
each other. As to Blackfriars, it has been twice
on the point of breaking down ; and the existence
of Westminster is a continuous miracle. We
understand, however, that the idea of rebuilding
it has been given up for the present, because all
the money which would have been devoted
to that purpose has been absorbed in the construe-
ion of war steamers. We wonder if a proposalpiad
been made for cutting a new steam basin in the
midst of Salisbury plain, as a chapel of ease to the
Portsmouth dockyard, at the expense of a few mil-
lions, any difficulty would have been found about
the money. Pass from the bridges to the public
steamboat piers. They are nothing but public
nuisances—a scandal and a disgrace to the river.
That at Hungerford-bridge is the best, and most
Londoners know what a scene that presents in
the busy season. Under proper management—
that is, with proper conveyances and suitable land-
ing-places—the river passenger traffic is susceptible
of almost any development during seven or eight
months of the year. What wonder if the public
are slow to take it up and quick to leave it off in
the existing state of the accommodations I From
the steamers we pass by an easy transition to
the street cabs, with the insolence and extor-
tortion of the drivers, the dirt and discomfort of
the vehicles, and the irregularity of their general
arrangements. That 6d. a-mile would be an amply
sufficient remuneration to the proprietors of these
vehicles has been sufficiently shown. The eight-
penny theoretical fare is in practice a fare of one
shilling per mile—a charge beyondany limit of pro-
priety. What has the public to do with back fares
again ? It is reasonable enough that a cabman
should not be legally bound to take a fare to Hud-
dersfield or Exeter from Charing-cross at any hour
of the night • but the limits of liability should be
extended with the growth of the town. For ex-
ample, new towns have sprung up at Kensington
and ayswater, but a cabman can claim back fare
if he is called upon to drive a yard beyond the
stone which marks three miles from the General

__—
Post-office. Surely this is preposterous ; but it is
only one ugly feature in a system in which all is
filthy, ill arranged, and abominable. Lord Pal-
merston could be active enough in redressing the
wrongs of Pacifico, or in every creek of the African
coast. His sphere of action is now nearer home,
and we hope it will not prove that, like Mrs.
Jellaby, his whole attention is still fixed on Borrio-
boola, Gha.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Dr. Wiseman tells the Roman Catholics at
Leeds, that science and education have always
flourished most under the influence of their Church.
This is as notable a discovery as any that have
been produced for the last century. It is, how-
ever, to be matched by Dr. Cahill's learned re-
searches into the Tuscan laws, which have taught
him, that the Madiai and other Protestants are not
undergoing imprisonment for the crime of reading
the Sacred Scriptures. We might also refer to the
advocacy of religious equality by furibund Irish-
men, who have either given themselves or earned
distinction as the Pope's Brass Band. There is,
moreover, the case of the woman who excused her
practice of skinning eels alive, because they liked
the operation. In fact, we may now expect Louis
Napoleon to favour us with a sermon on honour
and honesty, or General Pelissier, the hero of the
cavern at Dafra, to trumpet praises of his own
gallantry and humanity.
ever v
With respect to Dr. Wiseman, we must
him credit for as much cool assurance as
was displayed by any gentleman that has
sportedit sto a b
e scarletobsery wigobserved,
ata theindrnretdsame time, that
stockings ; but
his estimate of the info
of his audience is not very information
and intellects
flattering to their
vanity. Science and education have not always
prospered under the influence of the Roman Catho-
lic Religion. On the contrary, they have flourished
in spite o!ptrhieesmtso,satnsdtr.enuous exertions of popes,
Their Church most
all knowledgeinquisitors, to suppress both.
notoriously laid its ban upon
freedom of thought, without
which there cananbedun:f science. His examples are,
for the most part, s unfortunate for his assertions.
Among other things, itae.c s the inventionni of
atrhi,L-
thermometer for a
that the property in this invenetison is only
yy rdeomubt-
. The great Boerhaave in the first volume of
his chemical works, expressly
ascribes it to his
countryman Drebbel, and in this he is supported
by Mussehenbrock. Dr. Martino considers the

question undecided. Much. t i \ e may be said
of the mariner's Tam, -. too many
claimants of the hot assigned to
..
-..
an Italian, as Dirt . es • besides,
t
there is a descrip :‘ )• .44 't
and its
_ ,
.
use in navigation, • -'
~ cau-Inanuscript in
what was the King' 1 Paris, ofran earlier
date than the sup -, c O ./T. .0f it in Italy.
, .
After these reckless , 'bap tie Cardinal,
we decline to conside ' " fAiiii other scien-
tific inventions and &set) Much he enume.
rates.

What must be thought of people, who can gravely
listen to praises of the encouragement given by the
Church of Rome to literature and science, and in
the same breath, a citation of Galileo and Coper-
nicus ? The former was imprisoned in the cells of
the Inquisition for maintaining the motion of the
earth, and, to the everlasting digra,ce of the Romish
Church, was compelled to retract this indisputable
proposition. But this is not all. The works of
both these philosophers stand actually condemned
in the index of books prohibited by Pope Gregory
XVI., who lived but a few years ago, for he pub-
lished a letter in May, 1844, denouncing the Bible,
Bible societies, schools, and education. Nicolaus
Copernicus is condemned the Elanchus of Capiffer-
reuss, printed at Rome in 1632. Both are again
prohibited in the Index of Alexander VII., Rome,
1664. They are both suppressed in the Index of
Innocent XI., in 1683, together with Foscarini,
and we understand their condemnation appears, in
nearly the same words, in every subsequent Roman
Index to 1819. " Copernicus," says Sir David
Brewster, in his Martyrs of Science, ,6 tells his
Holiness, that the reason of inscribing to him his
new system was, that the authority of the Pontiff
might put to silence the calumnies of some indivi-
duals, who attacked it by arguments drawn front
passages of Scripture twisted for their own pur-
pose." It was the pretence of all the Popes, who
censured these great philosophers, that their theories
were blasphemy against Scripture, and
.we
.h.re
very recently seen Dr. Cullen seriously maintaining
the ridiculous proposition that the sun's diameter
is only six yards.
The Romish Church encourage science ! Why,
are not Bacon's " Novum Organum" and Newton's
Priacipia" in the last index of prohibited books
With regard to Copernicus, Foscarini, and Galileo,
these three heretics remained imprisoned in the
Roman Index for upwards of two centuries. It may
not be generally known, that the Latin translation
of " Paradise Lost" is also in the list of books pro-
hibited and condemned by the Church, in whatever
language they appear.
One might suppose that this patroness of
learning and science would distinguish herself
in biblical literature ; but what is the facts
There is a valuable MS. of the Greek Tes-
tament in the Vatican ; but, from the inven-
tion of printing to the present hour, not one
edition of the Testament has been published by the
Church in that language. A few years since, Dr.
Wiseman himself excited the expectations of all the
learned in Europe by issuing proposals to collate
and publish the Vatican treasure, but it seems to
have been a mere ruse. He either has not the re-
quisite knowledge of Greek, or he has been forbid-
den. We may have the bad translation of the
Vulgate, or the fraudulent version of the Rheims
Bible to suffcation, but not the original.
A passage by Cardinal Bona lies before us, show-
ing the kind of encouragement given by Romanists
to education. After forbidding laymen to read the
Scriptures, he tells them that the mpst suitable
books for them are story books, pious meditations,
and legends of saints.
Dr. Wiseman pretends that Cardinal De Cusa
preceded Copernicus, in teaching the same astrono-
mical system. We must doubt the fact until it is
confirmed by less suspicious authority. This man,
in his epistles to the Bohemians, teaches that the
text of Scripture may be altered and adapted to
times, circumstances, and varying understandings;
that the precepts of the gospel must be changed to
be -agreeable to the interpretation of the Church,
" because, when the opinion of the Church alters,
the judgment of God is changed !" We dare not
translate more of his impieties.
Lastly, we would ask any liberal Roman Catholic
to cast his eyes upon Roman Catholic countries,
which have never received the Reformation, and
compare them with Protestant countries. Let him
look at the condition in which Spain, Portugal,
Ireland, Spanish South America, Austria, Naples,
the Catholic provinces of Switzerland,
and those
of Germany, the States of the Church, and then
survey the industry, science, and power of every
Protestant state in the world. He will then be able to appreciate the delusive pictures of such
persons as Dr. Wiseman. His Church, he may
rest assured, is in no respect changed since it stul-
tified itself by the condemnation and imprisonment
of Galileo.
We do not attempt to deny credit to it for its en-
couragement of music, painting, statuary, and ether
arts, that gratify the senses, without taxing or im-
proving the intellect--sound and spectacle, without
troubling the auditor and sightseer with a single
exertion of the reasoning faculties. But it is simply
ridiculous to pretend that the Church, that is to say,
Popery, with its inquisitions and its denunciations
of men of learning and genius, its persecutions of
philosophers, and its bigoted prohibition of biblical
studies, is the promoter of science. It is downright
impudence to assert that the Church of Rome, with
its crusade against schools and colleges, its Index
Expurgatorius, and its condemnation of the noblest
poem ever written by uninspired man, has the
slightest just pretensions to be deemed an encou-
rager of education in the liberal acceptation of the
term. We are surprised, when its whole history is
considered, that any decent or sensible persons
should rank themselves among its members, and
equally so that they could sit by and listen to
claims which are contradicted by historical fact in
every country in Europe, and in none more so than
in Ireland, Spain, and Italy, where superstition and
barbarism have reigned in triumph for centuries.

ITALIAN ANDLIDEPBNDENCE.

Last night a public meet--.1.—.----eating, convened by the Com-
mittee for Promoting European Freedom, was held in
the British School-room, Cowper-street, City-road, for
the purpose of petitioning Parliament against the con-
tinued occupation of the Roman States by Austrian and
French troops—Mr. Robert Le Blond in the chair.
Mr. BEALE moved the first resolution—" That the
cause of European freedom is the cause of every true
Englishman, as the liberation of the oppressed nations
is the sure guarantee of progress at home ; and this
meeting pledges itself to further the objects of the Euro-
pean Committee by every means in its power." The
Committee, he said, had been in existence for a few
months, and had already done some good in the collec-
tion of what was termed the European Fund, to be
placed at the disposal of Messrs. Mazzini and Kossuth.
Mazzini and Kossuth had shown their earnestness and
courage in action, and they possessed the confidence of
the whole democratic party in Europe. (Cheers.) All
they needed was the moral influence of England, and
uroldpeabe
nafforded,freedom over
enable
them
wsuhcehn tptoehcfieugnphiratortpyheermblmtntlese aoa sf
mEcoue . Had England done its
duty as it ought to have done during the recent struggle
for Italian and Hungarian independence, Rome would not
have been in the possession of French troops, in defiance
of the will of the Italian people ; nor would Hungary
have been crushed by the combined armies of Austria
and Russia. (Hear, hear.) The occasion for action
might arise again, and what was wanted was, that
public opinion should be so ripened in this country as to
gwearsholouaulds btoersustained
madetuaprinpc
eoearttdn amenable
despotismsaceble tto a
abroad moral
enable us to exercise moral power, and to give substan.
tial assistance at the same time. Capel-court and the
IStock a
nEdx
tchtil
would become disreputable. Let such a feeling be
r created, and in the course of twelve or fifteen *-
despotism would fall to pieces. Austria, w in fact,
v atebankrupt
ile now, t
oandt 8 only
own
system " which was disreputable and suspicion: in pbriill-
olfuldba;not stand,
and Russia would have enough to Id
extended frontiers. AS fiance, to defend its own
nce, he thought its
Government had also
hear)enoughto do at home. (Hear,
Mr. JERSON seconded the resolution in a speech of
considerable length, reviewing the recent continental
struggles, justifying the course taken by the popular
party in these struggles, and severely condemning the
part taken by the British Government in the restoration of
the Pope to Rome by force F h
of French arms. The reso-
lution was carried unanimously.
Mr• W. T. MATSON, secretary to the committee, then
read the petition agreed to by the St. Pancras meeting.
Mr. W. NEWTON moved that it be adopted and signed
by the chairman on behalf of the meeting. As to war
loans, he thought if such a popular feeling could be
created as that spoken of by Mr. Beale, it would have a
great influence, though not, he feared, to the extent an-
ticipated, for in this gold-getting country there were too
many persons who would, for the sake of an extra one
per cent., lend their gold to support any war, however
unholy.
Mr. C. F. NICHOLS seconded the motion, and in order
to show that the committee had not been idle, said that a
small penny periodical had already collected two thousand
shillings, and was now collecting a third thousand.
(Cheers.) If other periodicals and the Liberal press
would do the same, there would be not large
collected, but a powerful effect produced only a
upon Europe,
fund
(Hear, hear.)
The resolution
was unanimously agreed to, and the
proceedings were closed by a cordial vote of thanks to
the chairman.

havein alreadyerl eaxrt:anndgeed.
lIGAR REFINING ComPANY.--We hear
toifonth,iasneodmthpaatntyhehajo far beyond
ments present a very handsome prospect of remuneration.
Licenses have already been granted to other refiners
and the important principles involved may be considered
in active work ; the Company starts therefore under
that rr ut
the e 130
pi t le
Lai
expectation,
operations leocntSsa
auspices which do not often wait upon novel under-
takings. The West India interest is much concerned in
its developement, and we are therefore more gratified in
marking itri succean.—Moritting Paper.