The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Ministers may expect that on every supply day, until th#_,'
end of the session, same motion or other will he made, pur-
suant to the example recently set by Lord Ashley, which
will interfere with the progress of public business. Colonel
Sihthorp has given notice that he means to take possession
of Friday next for his long pending resolution condemnatory
of Commissions, which he and everybody else knows will
be one of the long passages that lead to nothing :" he
cannot carry it, and he can furnish no information with
which all the world is not fully acquainted. This practice
of introducing subjects wholly unconnected with the Order
of the Day, merely because the Committee of Supply is
moved, is a groTing evil, and we should not be surprised
if the necessity of a remedy were to impress itself on the
minds of Members in the next session. We shall pre-
sently see all the Supply-days occupied by Notices of
Motions, and no sooner will one be disposed of than the
Chancellor of the Exchequer will be stopped in his progress
to the Estimates by another and another, until the whole
time of the House of Commons is consumed by proposi-
tions the discussion of which is void of all public utility,
and productive of no practical benefit in their result.
Supposing, also, that the Government do not intend to
enter upon Supplies, but propose that the Order of the
Day for that purpose be deferred, they may still be unable
to proceed with other business, because the moment the
motion is made for postponing the Order of the Day for
the Committee of Supply, any Members who have notices
on the paper may still avail themselves of the opportunity :
it is to them a matter of indifference whether Supply be or
be not brought on, so long as they can make their speeches
or prefer their charges. Such was the case with Sir E.
Codrington last evening, and his motion for a Com-
mittee to inquire into the situation of officers of the
navy, compared with that of officers of the army. We
do not mean to blame the Honourable and Gallant
Officer for taking this course, inasmuch as it was in
some degree a matter of arrangement with Lord John
Russell ; but we cannot approve of his motion, recollec-
ting that the object of it was to establish the existence of
an invidious distinction between the two services of the
army and navy, to the prejudice of the latter. In the
course of his speech, which was only imperfectly heard, he
stated, no doubt, several individual instances of hardship.
On a former occasion Sir E. Codrington introduced the
name of Mr. Bathurst, and complained that he had received
no promotion in the navy, although his father, Commodore
Bathurst, had fallen at Navarino. The ease was again
mentioned last night, because the previous notice had been
ineffectual ; and Lord Ingestre added his testimony to the
claims of the son with so much eartnestness that an implied
promise was given that Mr. Bathurst should not long have
reason to say that his deserts had been overlooked. No-
body disputed that the son of Sir E. T. Troubridge, the
grandson of two admirals, had been most properly
thoughadvced in the profession ; and Sir James Graham went
the length of maintaining that other officers had no right
to object to the promotion of the relatives of persons in
n
high station in the military or naval departments, even
they might imagine that their own just demands
had been neglected. Mr. Warburton, on the other hand,
agsdirected
tiov
anteedl
several
csuch)
interests attentiong r
great
of their
of
statesmen,
t altheet
ier s
moHouseenm,
because
tom l
ehse,
lanepypa I
hadagu
generous
ne
es
r disre-
gardedobue
ognaot
fl
ground
ora(
:t
pan
Committeeaan ,myi
yt
sanction,
otrfpohti
marines.
zeal for the public service. The answer to the motion of
Sir E. Codrington was twofold : first, that no sufficient
en lic!idfvoarnictedin
inthesuppparotritcuolfaritfa;ctasnd(ansefxatr,
etemi nwagai
whole
omtunderlaeyi
subjecte
dn
navy,
thevby,
Crown,
rCdtsoot Commission
inquireeni
answerassridosni into
iitnso
wasstt hht
al\nlde
accordinglymt hb eer coul
proposald
negativedgainsay
tai the second
appointment
oenndt
Captain Pechell to be insufficient, but neither lie
divi-
sion. With regard to the promotion of junior officers,
Admiral Adam contended for the fitness of it, on the
score that it was necessary gradually to infuse young
blood into the navy, in order that when an emergency
occurred active and able officers might be found to com-
mand our ships of war ; but the abuse of this practice
led Mr. Hume to remark last night, as on several
former occasions, that the navy was not a service in
which promotion was regulated by merit, but by interest.
It had been observed by Sir Edward Codrington, that
it would be impossible for Great Britain, as affairs
were at present conducted, to send five line-of-battle
ships to sea ; to which Mr. C. Wood replied, that we
had actually at this moment twenty sail of the line in com-
mission, and that the difficulty would not be to find ships
but sailors to man them, although as many were kept in
pay as the annual supplies would allow. We may in con-
clusion observe, that the practice of appealing to Parlia-
ment in behalf of officers in the navy, on the score of their
promotion having been neglected, is open to great objec-
tions. The House of Commons is not infallible any more
than the Admiralty ; and to say nothing of the danger of
accustoming officers to look elsewhere than to the Executive,
we doubt whether accustoming officers to see the success of
attempts to rise by obtrusion on the public may not be
promotions,
,ntsrjl.lmeroecltot
objection,
nneir:os:
The first
attended with very mischievous results. It is much safer
to allow Members to object to an undue exercise of
Chronicle.
patronage than to become patrons themselves.-111orning

We observe that Mr. Shaw Lefevre's Parochial Assess-
ment Bill stands for further consideration on report this
day ; and, looking upon it as a measure of immense im-
portance, we feel called upon to direct the attention of our
readers to the terms of a compromise Which, we are given
to understand, has been proposed by the titheowners, and
is likely to be acceded to by Mr. Shaw Lefevre, do the
part of the landowners and the owners of other heredita-
ments yielding an occupier's profit. The question at issue,
as our readers will recollect, is, simply, whether heredi-
taments yielding no occupier's profit are to be rated
on the same principle with those which do yield such
profit ; or, in other words, whether tithes, tolls,
houses not occupied for the purposes of trade, &c., are to
be rated on the same principle with lands, canal and rail-
way property, houses and premises occupied for the pur-
poses of trade, &c. The annual value of the lay and cle-
rical tithes of England and Wales is supposed to be about
four millions ; the annual value of the whole of the other
hereditamentstwelve to y•ieldingno occupier's profit cannot be less
sixteen millions ; so that we find pro-
tha
n from
t w
pro-
petty to the amount of nearly, if not quite, twenty mil-
lions affected by this question. We are aware that it has
been the fashion to argue this matter with reference
solely to the titheowners interest, and to treat it as
affecting film alone ; but this is manifestly absurd :
the principle involved in Joddrell's case is a broad
and intelligible one, and applies equally to all
hereditaments yielding; no occupier's profit. We are now,
however; given to understand that the lay and clerical
titheowners have, with becoming modesty, proposed to Mr.
She* Lefevfc to accept aft eeemptien of 20 per cent, upon
their net fetit-ehafgee the pride of theirabandon-
ment of the Joddrell decision, ttal Of theit etillitigness
to aid in wresting the advantages of it from hid ether
ocetipiers of hereditaments similarly circumstanced with
themselthemselves:litideestedd the effect of the coin-
chafge of 1004 this : seppose the thigd a rent-
, rated at present at its full grins
amount, and! paying 101. in fateSi or two shillings in the
pound • do
the compromise principle yeti deducts fitst,
the 101.; and then the 20 per cent. upon the net 90/., and
promi§e tb . be
rate only tieon 11 May be said that if you rated
tithes at their full ernes efficient yeti fated them unfairly ;
but in ninny patts qf the kingdom it has Nett the practice
so to rate thelli. NOW tee ere ghee to iiiidetstattd that
Mr. ShaW Lefevre is disposed to accede to this eCheipfo•
mise, and to iecufe it to the tith eowner by an Act of Par-
!lenient; iebilgt, lie leaiiee the ether. occupiers
of heri-
ditaiiienle yiehlitig fie beetleiieFe to efefii h
e 0 attle it
out, as best they may, with their oppotiettisi
shall be very curious to see on what principle
it is attempted eri jeetify this compromise, applied only to
tine class oilt seeefal which appear to es equally entitled
to it, and suspect that it is based on Co better foundation
than one of eepectience of liberality. The titheowners,
ne dear, ate a powerful and influential body, and it may
be cipedient to bfibe and silence them ; or it may be that
the clerical iiihrowfief ought at be treated With liberality;
but We should like Much to know, and think it most im-
portant that the country should know, what the principle
of this compromise really is ; for Mr. Shaw Lefevre
Way rest , atetifed that the question of principle will
be herealter raised, and that the Legislature will
have to deal with it again and again, unless
the dottiitfy at large is satisfied that this exclusive
ptoteetitln Was based au principled
of equity and justice.
We have occasion to know that appeals are now pending
in diffefent parts of the kingdom between the occupiers of
lands end buses as to their relative liabilities to be rated,
anti feel assuted that a lamentable degree of excitement
and confusion will be produced in the country, unless the
whole questien is now settled. At the same time it appears
clear to us that the Legislature will act most prudently,
under a choice of evils, in refusing their sanction to any
partial settlement of this great question, and in allowing it
to stand over for the present intact, unless it should be
found that the whole question can be satisfactorily investi-
gated, and equitably provided for, notwithstanding the late
period of the Session.—Morning Chronicle.
When the Whigs were in office in 1832, they obtained
a momentary confidence from some of the well-wishers of
Ireland by their indications of a disposition to enforce the
law and repress the agitators—by that policy, of which
Mr. O'Connell attested the soundness by the outpouring
of his whole vocabulary of vituperation. They were safe
tlzen, borne on the high tide of a full majority, and could af-
ford to do their duty to the country without endangering
!their tenure of office. In that posture of their affairs they