The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

supporting the Divan and the Sultan ABD-UL-
MEDJID, are prepared for any emergency. The
signal of conflict can come alone from the Cabinet
of St. Petersburgh—that signal the invasion of
the Danubian Principalities.

More than ordinary interest was last night dis-
played in the House of Commons in reference to
the adjourned debate on the India Bill. Extra-
ordinary animation was perceptible on every side.
There was, if not a very numerous, at least a re-
spectable, attendance ; and, in place of the listless
and apathetic indifference exhibited during all the
previous discussions, there was, at least, an ap-
pearance of attention, as if Hon. Gentlemen had
been suddenly awakened to the vast importance of th e
subject, the magnitude of the interests involved in
the results, and the onerous nature of the duties im-
posed on them. Our Eastern fellow-subjects would
have felt grateful for such a display of feeling.
But a further examination would have dispelled
the illusion, and occasioned very different sensa-
tions. They would have discovered that it was
not a desire to promote the welfare and happi-
ness of 150,000,000 of human beings that had
created the excitement. No, the justice or ex-
pediency of the various provisions of the measure
were comparatively disregarded. The object was
to hear a Parliamentary star of the first magni-
tude. A Gentleman, who, by the sound.
ness of his reasoning, the grace of his dic-
tion, and the brilliancy of his eloquence,
might be expected to cast new light on
the subject to invest it with an unusual
charm. It had been whispered about during
the morning that the poet, the historian, the
orator, had declared his intention of taking a pro-
minent part in the debate, and the announcement
insured the attendance of a crowded auditory,
anxious to enjoy the promised treat. Greater
anxiety could not have been displayed by a
fashionable audience to witness the appearance of
a new performer from whom much was antici-
pated, or for the rising of the curtain for
the pantomime at one of the transpontine
theatres on a boxing night. Indeed, there
was a great impatience to dispose rapidly
of all the preliminary matter, and to get
at once to the attraction of the evening at the
Imperial Palace of Westminster, as there could
have been at the Victoria or at the Surrey Theatre.
The veteran Member for Montrose, who had
moved the adjournment of the debate, was in
possession of the house, but he was treated with
scant courtesy, his rising being the signal for
vehement and reiterated demands for "MACAU-
LAY," which were, however, as ineffectual as those
of the Surrey sight-seers, for the adjournment of
George Barnwell, and the immediate com-
mencement of the Pantomime. The veteran
stood his ground manfully—sturdily insisted
on his undoubted privilege, and administered a
sharp rebuke to the malcontents who had ven-
tured to encroach upon his rights by endeavour-
ing to change the usual and recognised routine of
the proceedings. He, therefore, chiefly from the
respect due to his long services, obtained a hear-
ing ; but there was considerable uneasiness ex-
hibited during his speech, and great relief on his
resuming his seat, and the rising of the hero of
the evening, the Hon. Member for Edinburgh.
It is unnecessary to say that Mr. MACAULAY
delighted and instructed the Assembly. When did
he do otherwise ? He spoke on a subject respecting
which he had considerable experience, and access to
unusual sources of information. Although the
champion of the double government, he could not
be regarded as exclusively advocating the in-
terests either of Cannon-row or Leadenhall-street.
He had been a member of the Legislative Council
of India, but his appointment was ascribable to
the Board of Control rather than to the Direc-
tors, and the code of laws which he had so
laboriously prepared had been practically shelved
by the latter, and he had no place in the
Government, of which so many of his quondam
colleagues were members, but which could scarcely
be denominated that of "All the Talents" while
his claims were disregarded. It was, therefore,
thought that his information would be impartially
as it would unquestionably be eloquently put for-
ward to persons of all parties who were disposed to
listen to his arguments with respectful attention,
and to give them the weight to which they might
be entitled. The result, however, was scarcely
in accordance with the previous anticipations.
The Right Hon. Gentleman was brilliant and
effective as usual, but still there was a feeling of
disappointment when his speech was concluded.
He astonished, but he did not convince, his audi-
tors. He was, in fact, labouring on an un-
grateful subject, one which the most per-
suasive orator could scarcely hope to elevate
to a respectable or attractive position. It
would have been otherwise had he been on
the other side--declaiming on the absurdity
of the existing system—depicting the griev-
'ances under which the myriads of inhabitants of
these extensive dominions have so long been suf-
fering, and demanding justice for the victims of
misgovernment and maladministration. His fancy
was enchained by the nature of his subject. Excus-
ing the backslidings of Directors was not a suitable
topic for his genius, and even if, as he told us, "a single
incompetent collector of the revenues, who, finder
that humble designation, practically wielded the
gigantic powers of a pro-consul of a province—
could do more mischief than six incompetent direc-
tors at home," why should we, on that account,
consent to the appointment of parties for whose
efficiency or fitness there was no guarantee, how-
ever trifling. Mr. MACAULAY omitted to assign
any reason why the administration of affairs in the
Anglo-Indian empire should be handed over to the
proprietors of East India stock, or what claim they
could possibly put forward to the retention of the
patronage and power which might just as well be
bestowed on the Court of Aldermen of the City
of London the Marylebone Vestry, as on. the
Board of ctors. His speech, able and elo-
quent as it undoubtedly was, failed to satisfy the
disinterested and independent members as to the
expediency of adopting the make-shift proposition,
and tended more to establish the propriety of
postponement than any that had previously been
put forward on either side of the question.

Oh ! the cunning and adroitness of priestcraft !
' We never saw a specimen of it more worthy of
the age of pious frauds than that of wllich Lord
SHAFTESBURY has been made, let. us hope unwit-
tingly, the tool. The Dissenters, we perceive, are up
in arms already, and we do not wonder at it.
Lay Churchmen will certainly join them, and that
promptly, unless the mere detection of the trick
be sufficient to prevent its success. We have had
too many exposures of Episcopal avarice lately to
wonder at anything ; yet we confess we were un-
prepared to find it creeping along a bye-path of
intricate clauses in a bill to the gates of new
cemeteries, and seizing the keys till it had made
its own terms with the proprietors. To find it
literally empowering bishops to prohibit the
burials of Dissenters, as well as of Churchmen, in
cemeteries obtained by the money of both, till
a scale of fees, satisfactory to the Right Rev.
Prelates could be wrung out of the harassed
managers.

Lord SHAFTESBURY'S Bill sent down from the
Lords, and now awaiting its second reading in the
House of Commons, seeks most commendably to
give Local Boards of Health power to close over-
crowded churchyards, and to provide public burial-
grounds. The 4th clause enables the Boards to
make bye-laws, relating, amongst other things, to
the compensation of ministers, and others, and for
fixing the fees. These bye-laws must be made in
accordance with the Board of Health Act of 1848,
and must receive the sanction of a Secretary of
State. Mark now, unsuspecting reader, the first
trick. It is not deemed sufficient that the Secre-
tary of State, a person responsible to Parliament,
before whom as an impartial judge the episcopal
and lay disputants could plead, should be the
final arbiter : the Bishop of the Diocese, respon-
sible to no one, must approve them too, before a
Ileorpse can be interred either in the consecrated
or the unconsecrated part.
There is, however, no clause distinctly and
openly requiring
the double sanction. It would
have aroused immediate opposition had the TO"