The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-01 00:00:00

One class, it was found,..were still excluded, not
designedly, but from the insertion of the words
which constituted no part of the substance of the
oath, and which were merely directed against
Roman Catholics ; but which, after the Eman-
cipation Act had removed the cause that
led to their introduction, were found to
affect by a side-wind another and a very
different body. Other complaints were put
forward with much reason. One high-
minded and conscientious nobleman, a staunch
Protestant, an undoubted Member of the Church
of England for many years, refused to take his
seat in the House of Lords, inasmuch as he could
not conscientiously swear that no foreign Prince,
Prelate, or Potentate had any jurisdiction, power,
superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesias-
tical or spiritual, within this realm—when he
not only saw a numerous and influential body of
our fellow-subjects recognising the spiritual autho-
rity of the Vatican, and the nomination of
Roman Catholic Bishops by the POPE, which
Bishops were afterwards recognised in the United
Kingdom. It is quite clear that our Legislators
are required to swear that which is not the truth,
and which can cnly be got over by a degree
of mental reservation on the part of those
high-minded and conscientious Protestants, equal
to anything to which they so loudly objected on
the part of the Roman Catholics. They could
clearly perceive the mote in their brother's eye,
while ignorant or indifferent as to the beam in
their own. . .

The Oath of Supremacy, then, is positively
wrong—that of abjuration would be simply ridi-
culous were it not in express violation of the first
Commandment, a taking of the name of the
LORD in vain, which should be carefully eschewed,
not merely by every professing Christian, but by
every one who believed in the existence of the
CREATOR of the Universe, the Omniscient, Omni-
present, and All-powerful GOD. The person
taking the oath is required to deny the title of
the descendants of the late PRETENDER—and to
abjure all obedience to them in the most solemn
and impressive language, while it is notorious
that there are no such persons in existence, nor
is there any possibility of any such again coming
forward. What can this be deemed but an impious
mockery—a contemptuous calling of the DEITY to
witness—on a matter of no meaning—a wilful
breach of the first article of the Sacred Code, de-
livered amidst fire and smoke on Mount Sinai.
Lord LYNDHURST desires to remove these
anomalies to prevent the recurrence of these
flagrant evils. The Noble and Learned Lord
last night brought forward, in a speech of
most persuasive eloquence and convincing argu-
ment, a measure calculated to achieve this de-
sideratum. It is to be regretted that the Noble
Lord, in opposition to his own better judg-
ment, continued the words that operate so in-
juriously in the exclusion of our Jewish brethren.
He did so avowedly, because he would not endea-
vour to obtain by a side-wind that which should
have been carried by a direct and positive enact-
ment—emphatically declaring, however, that he
did so " ex necessitate, and as entirely against his
decided convictions on the subject." We trust
that this statement will not be forgotten when the
amendments of the Commons House of Parliament
come under consideration, but that it will ponder
deeply upon the unequivocal expression of feeling
by one of its most aged, most respected, and most
eloquent members, and give full effect to his en-
lightened views.

Committees are nowadays the effectual and
beneficent substitutes for Star Chambers and for
Courts of Inquisition. Wherever an abuse is sus-
pected a Committee is at once organised—a Chair-
man is appointed—witnesses are called up and
examined--and an elaborate, yet, for the most

part, sententious Report is the consequence of the
entire manoeuvre ! Is there a suspicion that
something better might be done in regard to
the regulation of the Sugar Duties, so as
to affect beneficially the interests of the West
India Planters ? There is at once a Committee
of Inquiry—toiling through a mass of details that
would have appalled our ancestors, and preparing
the materials for a blue book, certain in time to
be refered back to as a standard authority for all
future Administrators. Is there an inkling that
rather dirtier work than usual has been " doing "
in the Dockyards ? There is another Committee
of Inquiry as to that conjectured abomination—
to sift rumours and to arrive as soon as possible,

if possible, at something like a definitive conclu-
sion. Is there a notion, as our Yankee cousins
might say, that there are ghouls amongst us nowa-
days arrayed in the surplice or armed with the
grave-digger's mattock ? A Committee is fastened
upon that loathsome object of investigation to
discover whether it might not be advisable to
prevent the continuance of the horrors conse-
quent upon intramural interment: The only
misfortune is, that a Committee is generally
successful solely in exposing abuses in all
their natural, or rather unnatural, deformity.
It fails altogether in the majority of instances
in forcing the need of reform upon the recogni-
tion of the wavering judgment of the Legislature.
The latest illustration of the popular delight in

the appointment of these Committees of Inquiry
is discoverable in the one which began its sittings
yesterday in reference—What to ? To another
controverted election ? To another bribery case,
sacred to the memory of worthies like W. B.
and " the safe man," and the barber FRAIL, and
the lawyer FLEwKER, and the bricklayer MoRGAN,
and " the man in drab," cum acteris paribus
Nothing of the sort. The Committee, which met
yesterday, had reference to the management of
the National Gallery—it took into account the
condition of the pictures constituting the treasures
of that popular Exhibition. Colonel MURE was
in the chair, and the first witness examined was
Sir CHARLES EASTLAKE. For your Committee

is supposed to have a comprehensive genius
for everything in the wide universe. Re-
garding it as an embodiment, it might be sup-
posed to reason like PLATO, to talk like DEMOS-
THENES, to comprehend abstract science like
LIEBNITZ, to dance like CERITO, to play the violin
like PAGANINI, to sing like MALIBRAN, to act like
GARRICK, to chop logic with WHATELEY, and ingre-
dients for some delectable sauce with Sol-Ea—to be,
in fact, an Admirable CRICHTON, or a DA Vlrrer,
or a BUONAROTTI. So that -a Committee—the
members of which might have sat the
other day upon some electioneering case of
treating and intimidation —is summarily ap-
pointed by the Lower House of Parliament, and
Colonel MIME is appropriately placed at the head
of it as Chairman, to examine into the present
condition of the pictures in the National Gallery
and into the working of its present system of
management !
Obviously, of course, the principal good derived
from these Committees of Inquiry may be traced
to the information supplied iu evidence. But as
obviously the value of that information is depend-
ant upon the manner in which it is collected.
The answers given by a witness are important or
worthless accordingly as the inquiries are dis-
tinguished by tact or frivolity. Take as an
examination in point, that of Sir CHARLES
EASTLAKE, yesterday, as the first witness
summoned before the Committee on the State of
the Pictures in the National Gallery. Several
hours were consumed in collecting from this wit-
ness a variety of particulars relating to the pro-
cesses of picture-cleaning, with which the public
had long before, for the most part, become
perfectly familiarised. It is certain, there-
fore, that numerous pages, folio or octavo,
as the case may be, have in this manner been
already filled up in some prospective enormity of
of a blue book—informing the public at the
rate of so much per ounce avoirdupois of
thingsuust.
submit, if
to which there was no need
whatever for information. Such, however, is the
system in vogue nowadays, and to that system we
mustwith elm+ isfmfpotobLesiaburle, uncomplainingly. We
a good
panoneetthoe
amllatttheira,
twaddling
dadlidisteinng
'erapla
gapoinipginabtuLt:criounrigt.iii:ictures with a silk hand-
kerchief,tte
iawttiethr
opsoearpatioannsd. water,.f.
washing them .
them, scrubbing them,
and skinning
yin