The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-05 00:00:00

from their legislative duties in the House of
Lords. They will not be likely to obtrude their
voluntaryism into the debates, though it were too
much to expect that if Mr. SPOONER or Mr.
GLADSTONE, according to their respective modes,
give them occasion, they should abstain from em-
bracing it. The Coalition may probably expect
their full support in any measure of Reform,
whether relating to India, or the Colonies, and
especially to the Income Tax and Electoral Reform.
Nothing, probably, will more detract from the
cordiality of the support they would render the
present Government -than any paltering with
schedule D, or any shufffing with their favourite
question of Representative Reform. We have no
idea that they will be in danger of dissenting par-
tisanship ; they were elected for their political,
not for their religious, views. The utmost their
constituents wish, or even would allow, is that
they should guard with a jealous and firm hand
the common religious liberties of all. They come
in great part from districts which have for a long
time refused to pay church rates, and in which
the numerous new churches have been built by
generous individuals, or by voluntary contribu-
tions ; and this will give the tone we imagine to
their habits of thought, and their speaking on
ecclesiastical subjects.
In regard to National Education, there is a
schism amongst them. The thoroughgoing Vo-
luntaries objecting to State grants for religious
purposes conceive themselves bound to oppose
Government grants to schools in which religion is
taught. Perhaps none of them object on princi-
ple to the Government support of Secular Educa-
tion would gladly sup-
port
anything
hpi
nr probably a b y a
in
furtherance of education that
did not give undue power to the Established
Church. Dissenters have always been zealous and
active friends of educatiOn. They began 50 years
ago, amidst great opposition, the movement which
has now absorbed the Church itself in the stream,
and they may therefore be safely reckoned on to
support earnestly any fair proposition.

NATIONAL DEFENCE AND THE MORAL
RELATION OP ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

miSnieltdrolptoasPsePeass rasp
TO THE EitITOR OF THE SUN.
ot hwaetdtuhlenaFvyre.hchH
e fleet of war-steamers nearly equal to our own, and is
hapseraotrpisresdeenttera-
still augmenting their number. Twenty screw line-of-
battle ships have recently been laid down, and are rapidly
progressing. It cannot be supposed that the British
people look upon these preparations with indifference ;
quite the contrary : they are fully aware that the inde-
pendence—nay, the very existence of the nation is threat-
eipd. What is greatly to be regretted is, that no encou-
ragement is given to the enrolment of volunteer, or rifle
*pi, which, without such support, the present force is
totally inadequate to the defence of the country. It is
not by the addition of 20,000 regular soldiers to our
present army, brave as they are, that we will be able to
protect our shores against the vast host of France ; but
a' suggestion by Government for the formation of volun-
ter corps would in a few weeks exhibit to the world
half-a-million of men banded for the preservation of
peaee and the prevention of invasion.
Twice has France within the last 40 years been pros-
trate, and at the mercy of Britain and her allies, and
should such an event once more occur, care would un-
doubtedly be taken that she should never again disturb
the peace of the world.
_ _

The necessity of these remarks is obvious, and their
justice is proved by the consideration that the moral
relation of England to France is that of the preserver of
her nationality, since but for the generosity of British
statesmen the Treaty of Vienna might have borne a very
different aspect, and the dismemberment of France
might have been urged as more necessary for the pre-
servation of the peace of Europe than the partition of
Poland. This reflection seems to establish a moral
claim on the part of England, or a duty on the part of
France, not to jeopardise either by covert or open hos-
tility the independence and integrity of that power
which preserved her from extreme humiliation, after the
most signal vanquishment of her armies, and the
triumphant entry of her capital by the Allied Powers of
Europe. Such a duty being established, there arises its
correlative—the right of this country to demand for
what purpose exist those great naval preparations in the
ports of France, against which there is evidently no
power capable of contending but that of England. If
the reply to such demand be unsatisfactory, Britain will
certainly be justified in attempting to prevent such an in-
fliction as an invasion by means similar to those which
she, under threatening circumstances, employed at Co-
penhagen in 1807.
The blessing of peace, however desirable, must never
be purchased at the cost of independence.
THE VOICE OF THE NATION.
Feb. 1, 1853.

NATIONAL DEFENCE.