The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

At the present period of the Session, and in the existing
slate of public business, we cannot think that Colonel Davies
last night very profitably employed the time of the House of
Commons on a motion for a Committee to re-consider the
determination, not only come to, but extensively acted upon,
regarding the site of the projected new Houses of Parliament.
After nearly three hours discussion, it was negatived by a
large majority. The proposition of Mr. Wyse on the subject
of national education and the appointment of a Board to super-
intend it, was nearly carried, partly by the accidental absence
of Ministerial supporters, and partly by the purposed seces-
sion of a large number of Tories, in the hope that Govern-
ment might thus be placed in a situation of temporary diffi-
culty. Mr. Co!quilt:tun and Sir Robert Inglis are known to
have spoken the sentiments of the great body of the Opposi-
tion when they warmly resisted the motion, but, nevertheless,
very few Members on that side of the House were present
at the division. Much as they profess themselves ini-
mical to Commissions (not of their own appoint-
rent), they were anxious to sec one, in this in-
stance, forced upon Ministers, by the adoption of
the Address to the Crown recommended by Mr. Wyse. We
say this without reference to the merits of the qnestion, upon
which difference of opinion may, of course, conscientiously
exist ; the most zealous friend of the education and moral im-
paovernentof the lower orders may very reasonably object to
the particular mode in which the Hon. Member for Waterford
suggested that it should be promoted. Nobody will think of
denying for an instant that Lord John Russell is as sincerely
disposed as Mr. Slaney or Dr. Lushington to do all that lies
in the power of Government to accomplish an end so desirable,
yet his Lordship found himself obliged to speak and vote
against the proposition of Mr. Wyse. He admitted, in ac-
cordance with the address of the Grand Jury of Durham re-
ferred to by Mr. Hume, that there was an intimate connection
betweenignorance eod crime; but he gravely doubted how far the
appointment of % Board, under present circumstances, would be
advantageous in removing ignorance and lessening crime. He
apprehended (and the Chancellor of the Exchqeuer even more
strongly expressed the opinion) that the sectarian differences
at this time so materially interfering with the progress of
education, and animating the two bodies, the National School
Society and the British and Foreign School Society, would
gradually disappear; and already he observed symptoms fa-
vourable to the ultimate union of both in the great object of
education. This approximation he feared would be retarded
by the nomination of a Board to superintend the exertions of
the Societies, which Board could not yet be composed of
materials acceptable to all religious denominations. His 1
Lordship was therefore in favour of delay, willingly under-
taking, to the mean time, to lose no opportunity, and to spare
no means of improving the moral and mental condition
of the lower orders in all parts of the kingdom. With refe-
rence to the fund for this purpose now at the disposal of the
Treasury, Dr. Lushington and Mr. Baines reasonably re-
monstrated against the present mode of distribution. It was
the practice, whenever a certain sum was subscribed for the
purpose of education in a particular district, to add to it as
much more from the money voted by Parliament. Now, in
situations where instruction was most wanted, the inhabitants
wore generally the poorest, and were, therefore, least able to
raise an amount to be doubled by a grant from the Treasury.
Thus, those who were in the lowest condition as to circum-
stances and information were, perhaps, totally neglected.
Lord John Russell at once admitted the justness of the com-
plaint, and promised to do his utmost to remedy the evil,
though the Chancellor of the Exchequer pointed out with
clearness the difficulty of adopting a new rule, lost those
places which had been in the habit of raising considerable
funds should desist from any reliance upon their own resources,
and depend solely upon the supplies they hoped to obtain from
Government. Lord John Russell was decidedly in favour of
schools for the education of teachers (also contemplated by the
motion of Mr. Wyse), and enforced the necessity of doing every
thing that tended to raise the character as well as to increase the
emoluments of schoolmasters. For this purpose he thought
that some addition ought to be made to the salaries they might
be allowed instructors, after they had themselves gone through
the process of education. This was the more necessary from the
consideration that after they had been well educated the teachers
would be anxious rather to embark in a more promising and
profitable profession, unless some additional inducement were
held out to them in the same of pecuniary advantage. " The
occupation of an instructor of youth," said his Lordship, with
warmth, "is one of the noblest and the most important in so.
ciety, and we ought to do our utmost to render its emoluments
proportionate to its honours." We regret that the speech of
Mr. Wyse, which appeared to be full of various and interest-
ing information, was only imperfectly heard. The answer to
it by Mr. Colquhoun was remarkable for the narrow-
ness of its sectarian views ; but when the Honourable
Gentleman was charged with having delivered sentiments
almost peculiar to a sect, Sir Robert Inglis absolutely fired
up, and treated it as a most serious imputation that a member
of the Church of England should be accused of showing
symptoms of attachment to a sect. He took an exceedingly
high tone when he spoke of " the power of the Church and
of the weakness of the Dissenters," and called upon the
House to judge between them by a comparison of numbers—
a teat to which the party is naturally fond of appealing. " I
demand for the Church," exclaimed Sir R. Inglis, " the
right of being considered the first estate of the realm ; and
when the Honourable Member ventures to call that Church a
sect, it is my duty to rise in my place and claim for it the rank
which belongs to it l" As Mr. Wyse persisted in taking the
sense of the House, on a division the numbers were 70 to 74.
Mr. O'Connell's notice respecting female apprentices in the
West Indies- stood next on the paper, but as it was near mid-
night before the debate on Mr. Wyse's Address terminated,
he postponed it, and stated that on Tuesday next he would
name the day when he would bring it forward.—Morning
Chronicle.
In yesterday's Times there appeared an article which well
deserved that public attention should have been drawn to it,
and which we vow deem it right to notice, however briefly,
before a reference to the paper which contained it becomes
difficult or irksome through the lapse of time. The statement
in question was headed " Expulsion of the Tyrolean Protes-
tants." Althoagh this cruel transaction took place in the
course of last September, there is no unfitness in publishing,
or remarking on it, at the present hour, because it was direct
part and parcel of a system which commenced (or recom-
menced) long previously, and is still likely to continue in full
and inexorable activity. The oppression, ending in the ex-
pulsion from their country, of the Tyrolean Protestants who
inhabited the valley of the Ziller, was the work, we need
hardly say, of the Romish priesthood, engaging, for tools of
their persecuting tyranny, a portion of that landed interest
which knows how to make itself felt by the Court of Vienna.
The conversion of this virtuous race to Protestantistn is ac-
counted for by their habit of wandering beyond their own frontier
in pursuit of an humble traffic, which threw them in the way
of foreign Protestants, and placed many Bibles in their hands,
as well as tracts upon religion. No wonder that this in the
valley of the Ziller should be deemed an offence no less
heinous and unpardonable than it has been considered among
the wilds of Connaught, or that the M'Hales of the Tyrol,
like him of Tuam, should visit it with a memorable vengeance.
The feeble and priest-ridden Government of Austria, per-
suaded by its Papal hierarchs that the freedom of thought and
character which belongs to Protestantism must be dangerous
to arbitrary power, first upheld the priests in their vindictive
cruelties to these conscientious men, in the refusal to them
of the sacred rites of baptism, burial, and marriage, and when
all modes of domestic barbarity were exhausted, finished by
commanding them to sacrifice their faith, or to abandon their
native country. Pious and Christian as at heart they were,
those Tyrolean peasants, in number between 400 and 500 in-
dividuals, became mar tyrs rather than apostates. With the sums
realised by the sale of their little possessions, they quitted the
dominions of Austria for ever—that ungrateful Austria, for
which they had bled in successive battles against the forces
of Bavaria and of France combined, when the regular armies
of the Imperial Government had dispersed or perished. The
progress of the exiled' Protestants from the land whence they
were expelled to that wherein they experienced a generous
reception, and found once more a paternal home, was one un.
interrupted triumph. The sympathies of mankind were with
them. The houses and arms of all Protestants, from the
Tyrol to the Prussian territory, were opened to them, and
they were tinally settled near the town of Sehmiedeberg, in
Silesie, by authority and under the cordial protection of the
present King of Prussia, whose heart is no less thoroughly and
fearlessly Protestant than was that of George 111. Do not
let unreflecting readers flatter themselves that the odious pro-
ceeding here alluded to was an isolated instance of Romish
persecution and hatred of the Protestant religion. It was
no such thing. It was a link in that long chain of evi-
dence which proves that Popery is now what it ever has
been ; that knowledge spreads not for the Papist, and that
civilization fruitlessly for him extends her empire. What has
happened in the Tyrol is but another specimen of that spirit
which has just provoked the all but unanimous cry of large
Swiss communities against the Jesuits. The expulsion of Ty-
rolean Protestants by the Romish priesthood is but the proto-
type of another expulsion, not yet recorded, but deeply medi-
tated, and to be recorded by-and-bye—an expulsion not yet,
perhaps, in " esse," but in something more than "posse"—
one which will as surely be as Popery is allowed to flourish_
we mean the persecution, the reduction to misery and ultimate
expulsion from his native soil, of every Protestant who dares
resist the temporal supremacy of the Church of Rome in Ire-
land. There is not an arbitrary act or attempt of the priest-
hood in A ustrir, Switzerland, Belgium, Prussia, or any
where else within the reach of the Sovereign Pontiff's ec-
clesiastical runners, which does not bespeak art entire
identity of motive, end, and spirit, with those which cha-
racterise the outpourings of M'Hale, arid direct the whole
policy and progress of Maynooth. It is ON F.—temporal Po-
pery is everywhere ONR—a one and indivisible monster. By
some strange catenation of blundering fatalities, which will
seem inexplicable or incredible hereafter, not only have Irish
Popery and le's-ti democracy embarked in the same adventure,
but, what is by far more wonderful, numbers of intelligent
and observant Englishmen appear to have been more or less
imPesed upon by this absurd chimera, and actually to have
entertained the mad belief, that civil freedom, which is an-
the law, and a Popish hierarchy,
other word for protection by
whose sim throughout the world is the establishment of a
power beyond and above all human law, have or can have any
common interest, and cart be or will be served by the same
political measures.our Protestant
brethren of the Tyroßl.LmTenlimbeesr., Englishmen,
In addition to the Chief Baronship of the I ish Court of
Exchequer, the ministry over which Lord Melbourne nomi-
'des, but which Mr. O'Connell really directs, have
11.111tE hief Justiceship of the Court of Queen's Bench to
de-the late Chief Justice Bushe having been induced
6
-resign for "ia consideration"—we suppose a peerage. Thus
'-'';,L .e.„ p two most important judicial offices in Ireland, next to the
'74. e''' Lord Chancellorship, have, within a few days,fallen into the pos.
lession of the popish ascendancy party, for, of course, Minis-

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