The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-31 00:00:00

LONDON :
FRIDAY EVENING. AUGUST 31, 1838.

By the arrival of the Great Western Steam-ship,
at Bristol, from New York, we have received late and
interesting news from the United States and Canada,
a complete summary of which will be found in another
part of The Sun.

We called the public attention yesterday to the
fact that the sum of very nearly one hundred an:l forty
millions of money has been spent on the Navy within
22 years, while we are unable, because the reserved
practice of impressment still brands it with a felon
character, to send to sea thirty sail of the line.
It is impossible for us, and, we presume, for the
public, to consider that remarkable waste of the
pli1,1;r: resources growing out of a great public crime,
without remembering that the ex-functionary, JOHN
WIL•6ON CROKER, Esq., the pension to whose
wife was lately the subject of public remark,
was for fourteen of these years the Secretary of the
Adn iralty, and, like the Secretaries of other Boards,
the chief manager of its affairs. At the Board and
in Parliament that gentleman took a somewhat active
part in upholding impressment ; and for this, amongst
other similar services to the nation—by which, though
it were threatened with invasion, it could not muster
30,000 seamen without again having recourse to im-
pressment ! if that would answer the purpose, which
we doubt—he has been rewarded with a large pension.
A briefless barrister in 1808, he jumped into Parlia-
ment by accident ; he was a good talker ; he talked
for the interest of his party ; he defended, by all kinds
of arms, not excluding poisoned weapons, the jobs of
his friends ; he was soon made Secretary of the Ad-
miralty, with a salary of 5,000/. a year ; and after
enjoying that for this kind of labour for about twenty
years, he retired on a pension of, we believe,
2.0001. a year. Such are the services, in-
cluding his defence of that great public crime im-
pressment, under the consequences of which the coun-
try is now suffering, for which, in the name of the
j üblic, large salaries are paid and large pensions
estowed ! Can we wonder that a Government, what-
ever may be its name, which is conducted on such
principles, falls into disrepute and contempt ? Would
it not be wonderful if such a Government, for this is
a specimen of the whole manner in which the public
affairs are and have long been conducted, were not to
be regarded with dislike and disgust Men must lose
all power of discriminating good from evil, right from
wrong, honesty from fraud, hypocrisy from sincerity,
before a Government which, pretending to be the in-
strument of promoting the public welfare, largely re-
wards and largely
honours services, which are so tho-
roughly demoralizing and so thoroughly injurious, can
be respected.
Neither can the Legislature, which is supposed
to be the parent and guide of the Executive,
escape, as long as the power to discriminate
remains in man, from the universal condemna-
nation which must speedily overtake such proceedings.
For the existence of impressment, and for bestowing
rewards on those who have upheld it, the Legislature
is more to blame than the Executive. It is worth while
to remember, too, that in one branch of the Legislature,
the Bishops have seats, and our memory and our know-
ledge are sadly at fault, if these great lights of
Christianity ever lifted up their voices to denounce the
stealing of seamen, any more than to denounce the
starvation laws, both of NNhich are supposed to be ad-
vantageous to tkem. They are commonly described as