The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-24 00:00:00

THE WAR IN SYRIA.

(From the Quotidienne.)
MALTA, A uG. s.—For a long time past the European
lournals, in their recitals as to the wsr of Haouran, always
represent the Druses as the chief of the revolters in this
country. It is not, however, the Druses, but the Bedouins
belonging to the valiant and numerous race of Anesis, spread
over the deserts of Palmyra and Euphrates, who keep up the
insurrection. In the affair of April 11 last, in which 16,000
Bedouins completely beat the Egyptian army, composed of
9,000 men, there were only some few Druses. The Druses
are only to be found in Lebanon, and those who fought in
Haouran were only the refugees. Amongst the inhabitants of
Syria and the desert of Syria who repel the authority of Ibra-
him Pacha, the warlike tribes cf Haouran ought to be particu-
lady distinguished. The Druses, the Maronites, the Me-
torialis, the Ansaries, who inhabit the Lebanon regions, all de-
sire to fight against Ibrahim—but during the last two years the
son of Mehemet Ali has disarmed them all, and it is, therefore,
that revolutions do not break out in the mountains. The people of
Syria have an energy and a love of independence of which a very
imperfect idea can be formed in Europe. Four years since,
when Galilee and Samaria were not disarmed, all of a sudden
an intrepid multitude was to be perceived ready to march
against the oppressor. The cause of this was the conscription
which was ordained by Ibrahim in Palestine. Seheik-Kasin-
Hakmet, of Naplouse, was the supreme chief of the revolters.
They massacred in the plain of Zabulon the 13th regiment of
the line, coming from Damascus and proceeding towards
Kaipha. The insurgents directed their steps towards Jei usa-
lem. The Mussulmans of the Holy City were for them. The
Christians alone and 800 men of the garrison defended Jeru-
salem. On the Bth of June the rebels entered Jerusalem, and
pillaged the houses and shops of the Christians. The garrison
took to flight in disorder into the citadel or tower of David.
Ibrahim then arrived and entered the city. The walls of Je-
rusalem were soon surrounded with an infinite number of in-
surgents, who kept the city in a state of siege during 28 days.
Ibrahim had informed beforehand his father, who arrived two
days after at Jaffa with 15,000 men as a reinforcement. Me-
hemet Ali and his son then had recourse to a trick to get rid
of the discontented who required not to be enrolled in the re-
gular army. A treaty of peace was concluded between Ibra-
him and Sehiek-Karin-Hakmet. In this treaty it was stipu-
lated that for the future the inhabitants of Palestine should
not be counted as soldiers. The famous Aboughos was then
detained in the prison of St. Jean d'Acre, but Mehemet Ali
knowing he exercised a great influence over the Fellahts of
Palestine, released him, adorned him with a rich pelisse, gave
him a large sum of money, and charged him to restore tran-
quillity. The Fellahts had returned to their homes, and had
recommenced their agricultural labours, when Ibrahim
at the head of 16,000 men, pursued a destructive march over
Samaria and Galilee, massacreing all in his way, and burning
the villages. The Egyptian army disarmed all the moun-
taineers. The Schiek-Kasin- flakrnet and his four sons were
taken and decapitated at Damascus. This barbarous violation
of the rights of man excited in the country the most bitter
hatred, which can never terminate but with the end of the
Egyptian domination in Syria. These people, whom the
Governrnent of Mehemet Alt has reduced to the greatest
poverty, Trait for the army of the Sultan Mahmoud as the end
of their miseries, as well as the instruments of vengeance.
From the instant that the army of the Grand Seignor shall
place its foot in Syria, all these people will fly to the imperial
banners.

If hostilities commence, it is not probable that the army
d the Sultan will proceed to Syria by the defiles which go
into Cilicia. These defiles were always the terror of the most
celebrated warriors. Xenophon, after having seen these
mountains, said that the army of Cyrus could have been
stopped by a handful of men, if the King Syeuncsis had not
abandoned the heights. Arian also speaks of these defiles,
which, in :his time, were called the Pyles Cicilian ; after
the conquest of a great portion of Cappadocia, Alexander the
Great approached the passage of Cilicia ; before he escaped, his
sole idea was to go during the night and surprise those who
guarded it. Aftcr having put them to flight, Alexander the
Great avowed that it would have been the easiest thing possible
to have crushed him and his army by simply rolling upon them
Weeks of stone. M. Caillia, a distinguished geographer, tells a
story which was believed in the country, and which gives an
idea of :the difficulties which present themselves in traversing
these narrow and most difficult passages :—" It is said that
a Vizier, about to take possession of a pachalick of Syria,
having presented himself at thin passage, a fool, who was on
the heights ordered the Vizier to cause his band of music to
play, that he (the fool) might dance. The Vizier at first re-
fused to do so, but the fool told him that if he did not, he
would roll the stor.es from the heights on himself and his
suite, and the Vizier was obliged to yield." The Egyptian
soldiers, placed at this moment on the points of the Cicilian
Pyles, will not renew with the army of Stamboul the old
game of the fool and the Vizier. The troops of the Sultan
will not attempt to enter by this passage, so well guarded by
the soldiers of Ibrahim Paella. Nor can it be imagined that
the vessels of Constantinople can convey regiments to any
part of the Syrian coast. The fleet of the Viceroy is strong,
and ►would oppose the landing of the troops. The entry into
Syria by the plains of Samesat and of Aintab would open the
greatest chances of success to the army of the Sultan. It
would proceed from Nicomedia to Angora ; it would pursue
its march towards Yousgat, Kaissarieh, and Malatia ; it would
traverse a portion of the chain of the Taurus, which has ac-
cessible roads, and it would then be very soon on the frontiers
of Syria. This road is certainly much longer than that of
Koniah and Adana, but it is the least dangerous passage, and
the most easy which at this moment presents itself to the troops
of the Sultan Mahmoud.
Y -d

esterday forenoon the neighbourhood of the me-
tropolis, more particularly the western suburbs, was visited by
a most severe storm of thunder and lightning, which lasted for
a consibrable time. From ten o'cicck heavy reverberating
peals of thunder were heard in the distance, and about half-
past ten the storm came up from the north-west. About It
quarter past eleven o'clock the storm was at its greatest
height, the rain descending in torrents, and the wind sweeping
it in gusts resembling sheets of water, about which time the
electric fluid struck the house No. 7, at the corner of Orme-
square, Bayswater, kept by a lady named Kent, as a board-
ing-house, nearly opposite the gate leading into Kensington-
gardens, from whence, after breaking and dislodging the first
of a range of square chimney-pots, without further injuring
the piemises, it crossed the high road, and, passing over the
north-eastern angle of the royal kitchen garden, and the resi-
dence of the keeper, struck an ancient witch elm, shivering
it to the core. At the commencement of the storm, a school,
consisting of five-and.twenty nearly grown-up young ladies,
entered the gardens at the Bayswater-gate, and took shelter
in the alcove on the western side of the Broad Walk, a
distance of about thirty yards east of the tree, which is
about one hundred feet high. In the alcove were also
five or six gentlemen, who had likewise sought shelter there,
and the electric fluid, on descending the tree, and reach-
ing the top of the garden wall, burst into two portions, one of
which, passing along the outside of the wall, entered the gar-
dens at the gate, within which an old veteran, named Foubert,
who has for many years swept the crossing there, was stand-
ing, who states that he was nearly deprived of his senses and
eyesight by the shock. The other portion struck the west
side of the alcove, which, according to the accounts of the
gatekeepers, whose lodge is close to the spot, appeared for an
instant enveloped with a body of flame, which quickly passed
out of the gate without injuring any of the thirty persons,
within beyond most dreadfully alarming them. As soon as
they had recovered from their fright they immediately *left
the alcove, and took shelter during the remainder of the s'iorm,
which shortly subsided, in the houses on the opposite` side of
the Bayswater-road. About the same time a large elder-
tree, standing in the front garden of Mr. Davies, at the bot-
tom of Market-court, in High-street, opposite Kensington
Cherch, was struck by the electric fluid, and splintered so
completely that it was found necessary to cut it down.
Although several persons were passing at the moment no one
sustained any injury.
THE HARVEST IN IRELAND.—(Front the
Dublin Mail of last Wednesday. )—A very unfavourable
change has taken place in the weather—one that, we fear,
should it continue, cannot prove other than injn*l.eals to the
standing crops—although as:yet the accounts from 'the country
are far from dispiriting. Since Monday afterv,,ou it has been
blowing almost interruptedly a severe gale of wind, accompa-
nied occasionally by very heavy showers, 'and, up to thaetiz te
we are writing, with little prospect of p,-,tbsidi„g. We
alarmists, and are bitterly otipose.Ct to that aefarious system
ehich makes a public jouznal tubseme to the base and inte-
rested objects of parties, who speculate on human misery, and
purchase up food in, the hope of creating a famine. That such
wretches exist is but ton true ; and we believe that at this
moment a "east quantity of corn has found its way into the
hands of individuals not legitimately engaged in the trade, wl.to
are :solely influenced by a love of lucre, and who make Cneir
calculations of profit contingent upon the state of the weather,
and reckon their gains in the diabolical hope of a failure in
the harvest. That they may be disappointed in their calcula-
tions and their hopes most sincerely do we i:,ray ; but while
ee deem it our duty to lay before our distnnt readers a true
account of the variations in the we•atlter, it atfoids us joy to
b~ able to accompany that statere.ent w:th the assurance—and
werit derive o
y that
as
fa
sr y
etct s frono
thinjury th I, s t and surest
whatever
has
sbe so.r
been
nsuesets of h
sustained
da ut
thatc..
grain, while the potato crop was never more proinis-
awrzlidero!re the present, harvest below an average one in the
lug or abundant.

--
!Hits. TROLLOPE'S NEW NOVEL, &c.- .We are
r,itt.-...5te,1 to state that Mr. Bentley, of Mew Burling.ton-street
hn.s this day published "1 A Romaoee of Vienna," by !dr;
Trollope, author of " Vienna and the Austrians," '1 vicar of
Wrexhill,,, &e., (in 3 vole., post 8vo,), which to.ottow be had
of all book,ellers, and at the various lilirariec: .yi . B i
, °Y the author of " Ze-
ll is also just published " The Last D- - "" "" . ent‘ey
the 'Nazurenes of Rome," a romance ' Ays of Aurelian ; or,
~etters from Palmyra,") in
nobia, Queen of the East," (~ *
two vole , prise Twelve 51i:.,'.1.1!1g.5. Agents : for Scotland,
P.radfl'...e, "Edlnburgh ; for Ireland, Mr. J.
.11,ssrs. 11,21 l an,l
Cumming, Dublin.
Gatnlo: -
01r

'.6 .ncr is said to the besetting vice of Spanish
:,ra, who are, in all other respects, ..models of abstinence
and sobriety.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

How strangely the use of the simplest and plainest terms
is sometimes perverted ! Bribery does not seem a term
easily capable of two senses ; but the Tories, when it suits
their purpose, have a wonderful knack at discoveries of the
kind, and that which means giving money for a corrupt
purpose, and nothing else when committed by a political
adversary, becomes an innocent and disinterested piece of

benevolence when committed by one of their own party.
They look at objects with two different kinds of glasses—
the largest magnifiers when they direct their sight to the
conduct of their opponents—the most powerful diminishers
when they inspect their own acts and deeds. That they
are naturally short-sighted as regards themselves has been
repeatedly proved of late years, and, what is unusual,
as they grow older their vision does not appear to im-
prove. The Tories are now to the full as short-sighted
as ever they were in their lives. They have much
the same notion of bribery that Scapin had of thievery :
when he stole from his master, he called it the fair perqui-
site of his place ; when others stole anything, he denounced
it at once as flat burglary. Bribery is only bribery, ac-
cording to Tory interpretation, when it is employed against
them. What is going on at Yarmouth affords a remarkable
illustration of the ingenious manner in which the party
" distinguish and divide" on this subject. A new writ
having been moved for Yarmouth, and Mr. Wilshere having
accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, upon some understand-
ing applicable to himself, Mr. Thomas Baring proceeded
thither with all dispatch, professing not to expect any op-
position to his return, but resolved to be upon the alert, as
he well knew that the great body of the electors were, and
could be, no parties to any agreement made by third per-
sons to deprive them of the exercise of their rights. If the
voters of a place were always to be bound by stipulations of
which they knew nothing, but which had been entered into
by others affecting to act on their behalf, it would be very
easy for the Tories, by a little of the concert and contri-
vance at which they are such adepts, to disfranchise prac-
tically half the boroughs in the kingdom. Therefore, with-
out knowing exactly how the facts of the case stand, we
cannot blame the Liberal electors of Yarmouth for being
ready to assert their independence, if necessary. Mr.
Thomas Baring seems not to have been in a hurry to show
himself, but for some time lay perdue before he would face
the inhabitants. He at length came from his hiding-place,
and having collected his friends (though a few of his ene-
mies seem also to have managed to be present), he, and
two other leading Tories resident in the borough, harangued
"the multitude," as it is called, on Wednesd:y List, and
had everything pretty much their own way. Here let us
observe, that all the details, as in the instance of the late
Sodbury dinner, are furnished to the Tory journals by " a
correspondent," so that the speakers not only had every-
thing their own way at the meeting:, but in the news-
papers. The speeches are given in the- first person,
and the "correspondent" of the Times seems to
have been animated by the most commendable Con-
servative zeal. The character of the audience may be
judged of from the topics addressed to them, as well
as from the mode in which they were handled ; and Mr.
Thomas Baring and his coadjutors did not fail to bestow
abundant laudation upon the conduct of the freemen, the
relics of the old corrupt corporation of Yarmou!h—those
who, election after election, have been so accustomed to
accept money for their votes that they thought themselves
fiery hardly treated because some time -after the passing of
the Reform Act an inquiry was set on foot, prosecutions
were instituted, and convictions took place for Lribrry.
" One gentleman (exclaimed Mr. T. Baring) was actually
sent to Neagate !" Poor gentleman ! What a very
i 1 -
used gentleman he must have been ! A gentleman, a free-
man of Yarmouth, was " actually sent to Newgate ;" for
bribery! Howev,r, as we have already observed, the
Tories do cot look upon it in that odious light. The free-
mi.n of Yarmouth were paid two guinis each for their votes,
and yet Mr. Thomas Baring, Mr. Lacon, and Mr. Browne,
tile three speakers on the occasion, contend that it i= not
brti,ery. " I ti.ink the freemen ought to have it, and I have
always said so. I feel satisfied that the payment (f the
mere Iwo guineas is no bribery." Certainly not, worthy
Mr. Lacon : it is no brib:ry ; it is onl_, buying a man's
suffrage ; but that is no bribery—on the Tory side. The
" correspondent" states that " im»zense cheering, loud and
long continued," followed this deciara'ion of the excellent
Mr. Lacon's opinion, and we do not wonder at it. It must
have been highly swisractory to his auditors, especially as it
was a clear promise that the freemen of Yarmouth should
be allowed at all events their two guineas, or as much more
as they can get, in future. We see, therefore, precisely
upon what terms Mr. Thomas Baring is to obtain his seat,

if he succeed in his enterprise. The case of' Yarmouth
was inquired into before, and we should n-It be surprised,
atter what we have aliove quoted, if' it were to be inquired
into again. The House of Commons may possibly not ar-
rive at the same conclusion on the question of bribery as
Mr. Lacon, who (to qaote the title of a book bearing his
name, though not of his penmanship) has said " much in a
few words." Mr. Thomas Baring took great credit to
himself for having done his utmost to preserve the

freemen as they existed under the old rotten borough sys-
tem. Well might he do sa, since but for the preservation
of them he would never have been able to show his face at
Yarmouth. " Who," said lie, "at the time the Municipal
Corporation Bill was introduced, supported the amendment,
the object of which was to continue the existence of the
freemen, but the Conservatives and myself?" This was
pure Conservatism with a vengeance, and just the sort of
Conservatism that gives a designation to the party to which
Mr. T. Baring belongs. " Who," he added, " introduced
the Bill the end of which would have bean the disfranchise-
ment of the whole of the freemen, but Lord John Russell ?
Who supported it but the Whigs and Radicals ?" Thank
1-leaven they did support it ; but we should have
thanked Heaven still more if, besides supporting it,
they had carried it. The corrupt freemen of corpora-
tions, such as can be bought, like those at Yarmouth,
for two guineas a-head, were the avowed objects of
protection by the Conservatives, and it is upon them
they rely in their contests for borough representation. But
this is not bribery. Nothing like it. " I feel satisfied that
the payment of the mere two guineas i 3 no bribery."
Perhaps, then, Mr. Lacon will be good enough to tell us
what it is. We cannot help thinking that it will be called
bribery everywhere but in Yarmouth, and in places simi-
larly blessed with freemen whose existence the Tories have
so disinterestedly preserved. " Ears polite" at Yarmouth
will soon not know that there is such a word as " bribery"
in our language :
" In Cornwall people call a spade a spade :
They must be very vulgar—folks in trade.
For what were silken terms of more refinement made ?"
In the latter portion of his speech Mr. Thomaa Baring
adverted to the compact agreed to before the Election
Committee, by which Mr. Wilshere could only bind him-
self, and by which he will, no doubt, be bound ; but if the
voters of Yarmouth insist upon returning him again, and
rejecting Mr. T. Baring for the second time, we do not
know how he is to avoid the " honour thrust upon him."
" If fate will have me King, why fate may crown me,
Without my stirring;" •
and certainly nobody can charge Mr. Wilshere, who is now
upon the Continent, with at all " stirring in the business."
The electors have an undoubted right to do as they like,
and we are happy to learn that not a few even of the free-
men of Yarmouth have been so disgusted with the bare-
faced corruption of the Tories, that they are resolved to
support any Liberal candidate who will present himself.
Mr. Browne seems to be the great Conservative orator at
Yarmouth, and he is reported to have made a wonderfully
fine speech, all about Canada, " institutions sanctified by
centuries of glory," " pinchbeck," Lord Ellenborough,
" intestine broils," &c. In the midst of it somebody in the
crowd irreverently told him "to shut his potato-trap ;" but
he indignantly replied, in a tone, manner, and form of ex-
pression that must at once have silenced and ashamed the
party guilty of the interruption, " Sir, my potato-trap shall
open as often as it likes !" The oftener the better, we say,
if it be worth while to bring farther ridicule upon Toryism.
What chiefly strikes us is the enormous depravity of the
whole system by which Toryism is supported, the notorious
and even vaunted bribery at Yarmouth being only a small
part of it. Ridicule is not the weapon with which such
political profligacy ought to be attacked and exposed.
It requires the axe to be laid to the root, and not the
pruning-knife to be applied to the branches.—Morning

The astronomers, chemists, mineralogists, creologists, are
talking,
eating, drinking, and dancing, with their accus-
annual zeal, the scene of their display being this year
tomeS
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. How far the interests of science
are likely to be advanced by this periodical exhibition of
feasting and lecturing is a problem which, with all our re-
spect for several of the professors at this philosophical sym-
posium,
we apprehend not one of them could solve: it may
ver, that no great mischief is done be-
yona
be t,hou°At' i,
perhaps, ought, eliciting of an occasional half-sarcastic
ment from those
smile of of astonisbmont
or amuse
in
have imaed that " Philosophly"
minded persons who
was a grave and
meditative being, and by no means
given to dine on three
courses or
Once, certainly, Philosophy, ce itohwaltz like a tee-totum.ough never harsh and
crabbed, as dull fools suppose," was a somewhat staid
though she afforded " a
aid retired personage ; and
"
perpetual feast of nectared sweets, we suspect that
the diet was rather less substantial and luxurious
than the well.pastnred venison of Alnwick , or the savoury
g
" wild-beef" of Chilling-ham. Mais noes e
avails char
lout cell. " Divine philosophy" has become of the earth,
ea..thy. She amuses herself with a little botany, or a little
.
is scarcely
ehern.gtry, or a little geology, but the labour
more than sufficient to create an appetite and give a zest to
a sumptuous dinner. We do not, howel er, quarrel with
ti:e,e ,‘ scientific" pursuits of our nipiern philosoplwrs—
they ale, no doubt, pleasant enough, unless when a surfeit

nowand then intervenes. They, moreover, collect toge-
ther a great number of people, who spend money, and are
useful-to hotel-keepers and letters of lodgings ; they further
diminish the alarm which the unlearned, whether of the
higher or lower classes, whether aristocratic beaux and
belles, or plodding tradesmen and their wives, have
been apt to feel at the awful name of a philosopher.
When Professor A. discusses with epicurean gout the
beauty of the " Alderman's Walk" in a haunch of venison,
or Professor 8., in a smart new suit built by Stulz,
smirks and skips about just like " our honourable" cousin
Jessamy,.they cease to be formidable abstractions to Lord
C. or Lady D. ; nay, they are pronounced to be very
diverting creatures in their way : we fear, however, that
they also may create a suspicion that a considerable ac-
quaintance with geology or chemistry may be consistent
with a very narrow intellect, and that even vast attainments
in physic or zoology do not imply any extraordinary share
of judgment or wisdon. Such a result might not be merely
harmless ; it might be detrimental to the interests of
science, by destroying the prestige hitherto attached to it,
and, through decreased respect for its professors, tend to
produce an indifference for the doctrines professed. Nor
do we see, what at first might be expected, a reasonable
chance of a diffusion of knowledge among the poorer classes
by means of these periodical and numerous assemblages.
On the contrary, the extravagantly expensive scale on
which the whole arrangements are formed, and the
system of luxurious feasting and aristocratical feting,
preclude at once the access of all but the wealthy
classes—of all classes, in fact, except such as on Sundays
fleck to the gardens in Regent's Park to look on while ele-
phants feed and monkeys chatter. We confess that we
think these meetings: are calculated to bring ridicule
on philosophical pursuits, and to retard the progress of
useful knowledge, which must be acquired by severe study,
and not by flimsy lectures and desultory after-dinner con-
versations. Let young or old gentlemen, young or old
ladies, augment their pleasures by mixing now and then
" a little bit of mathematics and all that" with the last
opera or the last novel ; but do not let grave Professors
leave their respectable firesides and quiet libraries to play at
astronomy, by admiring the superiority of the earthly ring-
lets of Lady Mary over the celestial locks of Berenice, or
to show what a funny thing chemistry can be rendered, by
making the Lord Johnny split his sides with laughter in
breathing a whiff or two of nitric gas. There are plenty of
strolling teachers of science, to say nothing of conjurors
who can perform this work, and do it better. When Samp-
son went to the banquet to make sport for the fashionable
Lords and Ladies of Gaza, he did not go a voluntary geest
—he was dragged a prisoner to that degrading task.—Times.
The law relative to deodands, imposed by Coroners'
juries in cases of homicide arising from a want of due care
for human life, not amounting to that degree of culpable
negligence which constitutes the legal crime of man-
slaughter, requires some amendment. That it is a salutary
power, if rightly exercised, with which the law has from
ancient times invested coroners' juries, there can be no
question. Too often, indeed, the deodand is merely
nominal in cases where human life has been sacrificed by a
neglect of those precautions which are obviously necessary
for its security. In canes, for instance, of death resulting
from accidents by stage coaches, steam vessels, railway',
&c., it must be admitted that coroners' juries have, in
general, been exceedingly lenient, and thereby deprived
human life in a great measure of the protection which a
due enforcement of the law of deodands would give to it.
In many of those cases which are of daily occurrence, life
is destroyed is consequence of a cupidity to which all hu-
mane considerations are sacrificed. Years ago we
calicd public attention to this subject ; and we are
quite sure if coroners' juries had been more careful
in sifting the causes of death in cases of such
accidents as we have alluded to, and had, more generally
than they have done, imposed such deodands as would
make those persons who can feel in no other way feel in
their pockets for the negligent destruction of human li-c,
we should not have had the melancholy task of rtco:ding
so many of those fatalities in the conveyance of passengers
by land and water as have appeared in our columns of late
years. Not long ago we remarked upon the dreadful
waste of life which takes place in North American steam
navigation, and which the Journalists of the United States
Republic have coolly estimated at 1,000 het annum. If
the " march of science," like the march of war, is only to
be measured by the carnage which it occasions, this ought
to go on, and science, like an Indian warrior, should be
honoured in proportion to the multitude of hairy scalps
and other bloody trophies which she can exhibit. But if
science" should only be known by the beneficence of
her gifts to mankind, and the humanising effects of
her triumphs, then it becomes of importance to devise
all possible means—legislative and other means—of ex-
tracting all the good which can be obtained from sci-
entific discovery, and guarding human life against
the consequences of that callous or unreflecting cupidity
which but too frequently converts mechanical and other im-
provements into engines of destruction, and defiles the
triumphs of science with human gore. Shocking and dis-
gustinc, is it to read in the American papers the details of
steam-boat fatalities, which are almost always the result of
a sordid economy, which sacrifices security to cheapness in
the construction of the boilers and machinery of such ves-
sels, or; with the view of catching additional customers,
subjects the machinery to a pressure which it is not con-
structed to sustain. Some very deplorable calamities have
occurred from time to time in this country and in Scotland
by steam-boat explosions, which, though rare, when com-
pared with the " scientific" exploits which help to thin the
population of the " model-republic," would be still less fre-
quent than they have been if coroners' juries, in all cases
where life has been lost in this way, took care to visit every
instance of proved negligence with such a penalty, under
the name of deodand, as might make those persons who
are economical of every thing but human life reflect, that
in neglecting what was due to the interests of humanity,
they were neglecting what was due to their own. In a
recent instance, where several lives were lost by an explo-
sion on board a steam-vessel in the Thames, and that, too,
being the second instance on board the same vessel, we
were glad to observe the pains and trouble which the coro-
ner's jury took to sift the matter to the bottom, and have
before them all the information which they could obtain of
the actual state of the vessel and its machinery. As, how-
ever, a higher tribunal is finally to determine the question
of the deodand imposed by the jury, we abstain, at present,
from going further into the merits of the case. In all in-
quiries of this sort where there is proved carelessness in
the management and navigation of the vessel, or a
defective state of its engines and machinery—or where
it appears the latter have been constructed of in-
ferior materials—we are convinced that the levying
of considerable deodands will have more effect in pre-
venting the recurrence of such calamities than cri-
minal prosecutions. We observe that in the case of
the Victoria steam-vessel an attempt has been already made
to impugn the correctness of the decision of the crorner's
jury by the Edinburgh Evening Post, but for the reason
which we have stated—viz., that the case is yet sub judice,
we forbear to follow it into the particulars of the evidence.
It will be recollected that about a year ago a deodand of
5001. was laid upon the Monarch steam-vessel, which by a
collision with the Apollo occasioned a loss of life. It was
reported that an application was made to Government to
remit that fine, but we know not with what success. This
reminds us of what we said in the beginning of this article,
that the law as to deodands required some amendment.
Though deodands originated in the superstition of a former
age, civilisation may turn them to good account. At pre-
sent the deodand goes to the Crown, but to the family of
the sufferer the law gives no compensation. Why should
the Crown get what in justice the widow or the orphan
should have ? If a man's limb is broken by the negligence
of a stage-coach driver, or other public carrier, he may
have compensation in damages by an action on the case ;
but if his life be sacrified, his bereaved family have no com-
pensation. This requires reform. The deodand should be
appropriated to the family of the slain. In that case it
would operate by way of penalty on the party in fault, and
as some alleviation of the calamities to those whom it places
in mourning.—Morning Herald.
The Ministerial hacks affect to believe that the course
lately taken by the Conservatives with respect to the
Government of Canada was one into which they were
led by Lord Brougham, It is pretended that as they
did not make any objection to the appointment of Lord
Durham to the office of Governor, they are not only to be
considered as having approved of that appointment at the
outset, but as being inconsistent with themselves for dis-
approving of the conduct of the Governor, now that be has
been shown to have done that for which he had no legal autho-
rity. This is very e xtravagant nonsense. The Conservatives
carefully steered clear of any interference, or any Parlia-
mentary criticism, upon the appointment of Lord Dur-
ham. They knew their constitutional duty better than
to interfere with that which was strictly an executive duty,
of which Ministers had a right to bear the undivided re-
sponsibility. They agreed that a Governor should be sent
with certain very strong and extensive powers for dealing
reno
principle, S
withwe the peculiar circumstances of Canada, but they
ofo rags ettoful
makeof their
rmeoonn s
esense r
thean d constitu-
tional
limitations
they existed upon, in any degree '
contingent upon the per-
son that the Crown might ' t appoint to exercise the powers
ignorance as Igsa a t
to r e
of the Canadian Lerni.gli They left such unstates-
manl'ker. Hume and similarly ob-
sequious trimmers. Butt
the Conservative asleadersintothe course lately taken by
the `li: .is eiial leaders in the House of Lords, which
the House of C:)nunos did not
a
dare to oppose—though they meanly and w •
at it—it is perfectly consistent with the viewsspandishly Prnei-
carped
les laid down by &r Robert Peel when taking g
,the lead,
as he unque:tio -ably did, in making the eeatiae Evrant,,-
inents for the Provisional Government of Canada last Ja-
nuary. He then said that he would witl.h.ll notl;ing fie m
_ -

Lord Durham as Governor of Canada on account of any poli-
tical difference between them ; but he would not concede to
him, because he would not concede to any person, one
iota of power which was not necessary for the exigency
of the case ; and he thought that it was debasiog and
degrading the great question before the House to put forth
the personal character of the individual, that it might
guide the decision of the House. And he added, on the
same occasion, that in so grave a matter—one which of all
others was the most important that Parliament ever had
to discuss, namely, the suspension of the Constitution of a
great country—the personal character of the individual ap-
pointed to carry on the Government. sunk into absolute in-
significance compared with the constitutional question,
Upon a precisely similar view have the Conservative leaders
in the House of Lords acted. The pretence that hostility
to Lord Durham had anything to do with the course taken
by them, is not less stupid than it is malicious. They have
acted upon those principles of constitutional jea-
lousy which ought to animate every free Briton,
and which are but ill compensated for by an affec-
tation of confidence in the " liberal" propensities of this or
that individual. As Sir Robert Peel said, they will not
concede one iota of power to- any man, over the liberties
or rights of his fellow-subjects, beyond what is necessary
for the exigency of the case, and it would be monstrous to
to suppose that, after having fully considered that exigency
and awarded powers accordingly, it still remains necessary
that a Governor should be allowed to act upon his abso-
lute will, in violation of the law, and in culpable neglect
of the limitations of the power conceded to him. This is
the true state of the case, and this will be remembered by
the British people, in spite of the impudent extravagance
of Ministerial advocates, who pretend to extraordinary " li-
-berality," and manifest that liberality by endeavouring to
set up one of the most depotic of their faction, as Lord-
Paramount over the low.--illorning Post.
The Tories, after mustering all their forces against the
appropriation clause of the Tithe Bill, after pronouncing it
to be nothing less than spoliation, robbery, and sacrilege,
and these of the basest kind, now make its abandonment
by Ministers the occasion of the most fearful abuse, the
ground of charges the most grievous. They who, a short
time since, denounced the Government, and the Liberal
party who supported them, as sacrilegious persons and
robbers both of God and man, as spoliators of the very
worst class, and as enemies to Protestantism and Pro-
testants, because, forsooth, they proposed to appropriate
the surplus revenues of the Church of England in Ire-
land (our readers will pardon this Hibernianism since
it is a creation of the Church) to the legitimate'
and most useful purpose of educating the people, are
now vilifying them through their organs of the Press,
as lovers of place rather than of consistency, of power
rather than of principle, in consequence of their
having withdrawn this part of their measure. But what
tiiid not Tories do? What inconsistency, even while
charging others with this offence, can be too monstrous
for them? What mischief have they not attempted?
\\That good have they ever effected, unless it were by acci-
dent, or as the result of uncontrollable necessity, which ne-
ces-ity they have not failed to plead in extenuation of their
crime, when making confession of their sin, and expressing
contrition for their guilt. In every work of mischief the
Conservative party, as the Tories miscall themselves, act
voluntarily ; but in any thing that is good, under compul-
sion alone. In every thin; opposed to the public good the
Tories act upon " the voluntary principle," none so friendly
to its operation as they ; but in every thing favourable and
contributing to the public: advantage, the compulsory prin-
ciple alane recogrise I. But this by the way. Surely
every candid mind must revolt at the monstrous incon-
sistency of the course pursued by the Torles in re-
ference to the Ministers and the appropriation clause.
Without attempting to defend the Government, we
venture to ask, " Are the Conservatives the party
to upbraid Ministers? Are they, who have denounced
the appropriation clause and its supporters—;vho have
ob.-tructed them in every possible way—who have
moved, not heaven and earth, indeed (for the form:r is
not under Tory influence), but earth and hell, to effect
thelr struction—are these, we ask, the men to reproach
and condemn the Government for the abandonment of the
appropriation principle ? That they would do so is not,
indeed, too much to expect from their inconsistency ; nor
can it excite our surprise to find that in this respect they
have been true to themselves. But surely they might have
left this work for other hands. The task they have de-
volved on themselves has, doubtless, been to them one of
pleasure : but undoubtedly they would have been much
better employed in learning the more difficult, but more
useful lessons of consistency, prudence, and practical wis-
dom. They have been inconsistent, imprudent, and impo-
litic in this matter particularly, from first to last. The
Conservatives, who represent themselves to be the only
true Protestants, the only true friends to the Church Esta-
blishment of this country, have stoutly and perseveringly
op:hist:4cl themselves to the appropriation clause, on the
ground, forsooth, that that clause would be injurious Loth to
Protestantism and the Church Establishment. But what is
this but a virtual slander upon both ? What would Luther
have said, had he heard it insinuated that the education of
the people could possibly be otherwise than beneficial to the
cause he espoused ? Would he not have denounced the insi-
nuation as an incipient libel upon Protestantism ? And
would lie not have declared that education would be the
most powful auxiliary in the work of reformation ? Nay,
did lie not find, and has it not since been invariably found,
that education must prepare the way for reformation ?
that corruptions, and abuses, and errors fly before the
light, and that the introduction of light is essential to the
dispersion of darkness ? Undoubtedly the scriptural edu-
cation of the people of Ireland would prove the dawn of
a bright and glorious day—the first beamings of an orb
whose progressive light and power would disperse the
darkness of that land, and give to its inhabitants liberty, and
peace, and happiness. It is now the seat of darkness, and
disquietude, and discomfort. But let the educaticin of the
people be commenced on an adequate scale, and these would
gradually disappear. If the Bible be the religion of Protes-
tants, what can be more desirable, more necessary to the esta-
blishment of Protestantism in Ireland than the general qua-
lification of the people for its perusal ? Teach the popula-
tion to read, and then you may put into their hands the
authorised version of the Scriptures. Until the former is
done, the latter will be of no avail, and thus the very spring
and source of Protestantism is closed to the people. What,
then, could be a more legitimate, appropriate, desirable, or
effective mode of disposing of the surplus revenues of the
Church than that proposed ? The very fountain of Protes-
tantism would thus be opened to our Irish brethren, and
its pure streams would flow tranquilly and copiously through
the length and breadth of the land, producing moral
verdure and fertility where now all is parched, and sterile,
and unproductive. The revenues of the Church in Ireland
are raised, ostensibly at least, for the purpose of instructing
the people in Protestantism. What can more effectually
promote that object than the preliminary and preparatory
course proposed ? The ability to read is necessary to the pe-
rusal of the Bible, whence springs the religion of Protestants,
and it is eminently calculated to render the preaching of it
acceptable and useful. Unless, therefore, we have miscon-
ceived and misrepresented Protestantism—unless we have
misunderstood the purpose for which the revenues of the
Church are raised, the education of the people of Ireland
by the means proposed must be beneficial to the former in
a very eminent degree, and perfectly compatible with the
latter, and, therefore, the opposition of the Conservatives,
the boasted friends of Protestantism and the Church Es-
tablishment, to this coarse, must be monstrously. inconsis-
tent and disgraceftil. 'lf, however, we have slandered the
Church, and misrepresented her ministers, by taking it for
granted that her revenues are designed, not simply and
alone fur the maintenance, and use, and benefit of the
clergy, but for the instruction of the people, and the propa-
gation of true religion, we must confess that the Tories
have acted consistently in opposing the appropriation clause,
and humbly beg pardon for charging them with doing the
contrary. But the true friends of the Church would, we ex-
pect, have charged us with misrepresentation and injustice,
had we even insinuated that her clergy were so selfish, and
mercenary, and unworthy of their office as to regard her reve-
nues as intended only, or even dhiefly,fortheir personal bene-
fit. The Catholics might also have interposed, and declared
that their ministers had a higher claim, and could prefer a
better title. They would have contended that if the personal
benefit of the clergy had been originally contemplated, and
not the instruction of the people in the Christian religion,
the clergy of the Church of Rome, who had possession,
ought never to have been deprived of them, and ought even
now to have them restored. Had any but the friends (so
called) of the Church declared that the education of the
people would be an object unworthy of the appropriation
of her surplus revenues, or that such an appropriation
would be injurious to the Church, and beneficial to Catho-
licism, these same individual friends to the Church would
have denounced the assertion as slanderous and unchris-
tian. If it be said that the clergy are doing all that is
necessary in the way of instructing the population of Ire-
land, and that thus the revenues of the Church are already
applied to their legitimate purposes, we reply, that the re-
venues affected by the appropriation clause are surplus re-
venues. And we are bound to inquire, and the friends of
the Church arc bound satisfactorily to answer the inquiry—
how it happens that ignorance, superstition, and Catholi-
cism are so preva'ent ?—how it occurs that the whole
country is made to lino- with the protestations of the friends
of the Church of the ring
increase of Popery, and with
their gloomy forebodings of the appalling and overwhelming
results, unless the rapidly swelling and impetuous torrent
he not iinmediately resisted ?—illorning Advertiser.

SUDDEN DEA Tll.—As Mr. Smith, a partner in
the old firm of Smith and Ingh!, paper-manufacturer=,
TtirostlereA, near Manchester, was walking out of the club.
room, in Manchester, on Monday last, he fell dawn and ex-
pired without a groan.

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1838.