The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-12 00:00:00

rzfle

WITH WHICH
THE " TRUE SUN" IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 12, 1838.

We are glad to ace the Post, by denying the right o
Parliament to " interfere, in the first instance, to correct
university abuses," provoking a public discussion on the
subject. For our parts we maintain, as the State annually
makes certain grants to the universities—as it confers on
them the privilege of exacting copies of all hooka which are
published= as it bestows on them a large portion of that tax it
levies on the whole community under the name of tithes,
and enhances their revenue by the corn-laws-T—as it grants
to them much politicial power not possessed by any other
bodies in the State, each of them, for example, having two
votes in the House of Commons, while most of the mem-
bers of the universities have votes for representatives in
some other capacity—and as it bestows on them a consider-
able number of privileges, such as that of printing certain
books, and of giving certificates of study which forward men
in the learned professions, giving to the persons educated at
them the whole monopoly of Church preferments—on all these
accounts we maintain that the State which bestows every
one of these powers, privileges, and revchues on the Uni-
versities, has not only a right to interfere, but is bound at
every moment to interfere, and see that the power it dele-
gates is not abused, and to be at every moment convinced
that delegating it is of great advantage to the public. The
State exercises its Corporate power through the two
Houses of Parliament, and every Member of them is au-
thorised and required to pry into and investigate every off-
set and shoot of that power. Trade, agriculture, the press,
&c., grow up in society independent of the State, and in
many instances in defiance of its regulations ; the univer-
sities, like the army and navy, and the established
Church, are the creatures of its will, the offspring of its
enactments, and the Parliament is bound to take care that
they answer the purposes for which they are instituted.
Honour therefore say we to Lord RADNOR, and let all the
libera7s in the empire echo the sentiment and back his
exertions, since the Tories huff him and sneer at him for
honestly attempting to perform his duty of ascertaining
whether the universities are beneficial or injurious.
We hear a great deal about the education of the lower
classes, but as far as the public is concerned they are much
more deeply interested in the education of the upper than
in that of the loner classes. If a ploughman turns his
furrow well—if a carpenter make his mortices strongly
and neatly—if a smith weld two pieces
.of iron on which
other men trust their lives firmly—if the captain of a
steam-boat conduct her in safety to her destination, it is
nearly all the public have to look for from them, and the
influence of all the classes of workmen, of whom we have
selected these as representatives over the public welfare,
is then at an end. They have done their duty. But it is not
so with the upper classes. When the Peer has let his
lands mast to his own advantage, and provided in the
best possible manner for the order and dignity of his house'
hold, so as to spend his income in the best manner, his in-
fluence over the public welfare does not stop. Ho is about
the four hundredth part of one branch of the Legislature,
and has a potential voice in making laws for the whole.
His example, his mode of living, his moral character, his
ways of thinking and of acting, have all a wide influence
over the public happiness, and consequently the public
have an infinite greater interest in the education of the up-
per than in that of the lower classes. The State then is bound
to look far closer after the universities than the schools : and
we will own that it does astonish us that all the intelligent,
commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural classes of this
mighty empire, whose welfare is intimately bound up with
legislation, should so long have looked with indifference, with
apathy, or even with approbation, on the circumstance that
the education of nearly all the law-making classes should
be
placed—and so placed by the act of the State—com-
pletely and exclusively under the controul of one order
of selfish men, who have always promoted their own inte-
rest at the expense of the general welfare.
The interests of all the industrious classes requires that
old regulations should be gradually improved ; that nevi
regulations should be adapted to the several parts of
society as it grows and expands, and that legislation
should as much as possible provide for the future, since
over the past it has no particle of power. But the
interests and the duty of that class of men to whom the
State entrusts the education of the ruling classes, are to
hold by the past—to prefer ancient traditions to modern
science—to make a barrier against progress out of old facts
and old tales—to deny all truth that is contrary to their
exclusive creeds—and to impress the past on the mind as of
infirlits-,‘ importance comnared to the present and the
rn,.!
and their duty are directly n,t'
the nt-neipis wldeh ought to he the guides
of the Legislator, and tii it iailuence over the mind. of 1130
ruling classes would be most pernicious, were it not cow

faturp

p.arsuits

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ztinually modified hy the taus of every day and the practices of
• 'tire world. It continually, indee:l, makes their pupils look
-contemptible orfoo!ish. Before that happens, however, society
invariably suffers much injury by their folly. It is time,
therefore, we think, for tl.e practical men of this generation,
• whose interests are deeply involved in the education of the
upper classes, to insist on the State carrying Reform into
' • those high schools and universities where the upper chutes
• are brought up.
t
w

e mentioned, in our paper of the 3d instant, the fact
that a great dispute had arisen between the landowners and
the titbeowners, as to the rating of tithes to the poen
The l'andowners contend that the full amount of tithes
shall be rated, and only the net rent of land. The
tiraeowners contend that the net rent, and also the
T,,rofit of the farmer, should I), rated ; or that a re-
duction, proportionate to that profit, from the full
amount of tithe shall be made, and that the rating
shall be assessed on what renta'ns. It is. contended, on
the one hand, that, up to the case, the King v. Joddrell,
decided in 1830, the law was as the landlords say it ought
to be. It is contended on the other, that the law always
was as the Tithe owners say it ought to be ; and the deci-
sion in the case just mentioned only confirmed previous dt-
ctsions, and was quite in accordance with the whole stream
0f law. We venture no opinion on the law of the ease,
or on its equity, as between the two parties, for as long
as the Corn-laws are in existence, it is of little consequence
to the- public, whether the landowners or the:titheowners
get the larger share of the sum they both conspire un-
Justly to take out of the pockets of the public ; but we
bray notice, as of public importance, the grounds on which
the tithe-owners claim the deduction.
The Bill, which is to settle this point, reversing the law as
decided in the case we have quoted, and assessing the rate
on the whole amount of tithes, was read a second time last
night in the House of Commons. Mr. GOULBURN, as the
organ of the tithcowners, moved that it be put off for three
months, but the second reading was carried by 104 to 42,
demonstrating that the landowners do not care one straw
for the Church when it stands in their pleasant paths, and
does not help them to wealth and distinction. They will
uphold it against the people—they will fleece it for them-
selves. In the course of the debate Sir EDWARD SUGDEN
assigned as one reason for opposing- the Bill, that, tithes
Were a salary, or professional reward, for the parson's la-
bour, drawing an invidious distinction between them
and rent, I%hich is not the salary, or reward for
*fly labour, and claiming, on the principle that other
professional fees, and the profits of industry, are
'exempt from contribution, that the proceds of tithes
should be placed on the same footing as the
profits of the farmers. We find the same idea worked out
in Mr. JONES'S pamphlet, to which we formerly referred
" Tithes," he says, " are the rewards of professional duties
personally performed ;" they are the " Clergyman's salary ;'
they are " professional wages ;" they are like the fees of
lawyers or the salary of public officers, but not so well
paid,

We must call on our readers to admire the marner
which these reverend Gentlemen and their advocates
in Parliament give a different character to their emolu-
ments just as it suits their present purposes. When any
question arises about the Legislature curtailing the emolu-
ments of the Church 'then they are all property—property
more sacred and held by a far older tenure than any estate
in the country ; they are of divine origin, and the sacrile-
gious Legislator is defied to touch a penny of the
divine gift ; but now all at once when a question
of rating the property arises, it becomes wages paid
for weekly work ; professional fees given for the per
formance of duties ; salaries bestowed to remunerate ser-
vices performed, as required by the law. But to whom
are they performed ? is the question. Who pays the
wages ? who gives the fees ? who apportions the salary ?
whom do the Clergy serve ? and who pays them ? We
Will answer for them. The State, the law, and the people ;
and the claim the clergy have now set up against the land-

owner, whether valid or not, is totally incompatible with their
other claim, that the property of the Church is sacred, and
not to be touchedby those who pay the fees, the salaries, or
the wages. If the Commutation of Tithes Act passed by the
Whigs has conferred no other benefit on society, it has
done an inestimable good in bringing the landowners
the titheowners into direct and immediate conflict.
Their imutual avarice will now work for the public. As
LEFEvnE's law is not likely to pass this session,
and as the landowners have completely disappointed the
hopes expressed by the Rev. Mr. JONES and his bre-
thren, it is to be expected that the contests which both
Parties say are springing up in all parts of the kingdom,
all
afford a rich harvest of professional fees to the lawyers.

n
another part of I;he Sun of this day will be found
some report of a Cominission de Lunatico Inquirendo,
Which deserves attention from the singular circumstance—
not singular by the by, in such cases—of the subject of the
enquiry proving herself to be as sound in intellect, and
quite as sagacious, as all those who give evidence
against her, and those who are appointed to sit in
judgment upon her. Lady SEYMOUR—the lady in ques-
tion---who is described as of " a very clever, lively, and
exciteable disposition," is the widow of one of the Indian
Judges, and having lately lost her mother, to whom
she was much attached, and her child having fallen
into a dangerous state of health, she has, it seems, of late
become melancholy and irritable, and a prey to these occa-
sional wayward fancies,which—as every medical practitioner
knows, or should know--arc apt to follow in the train of
affliction, without at all impa;r:ng the integrity of the
mental faculties. Those, however, who are most inte-
rested in Lady SEYMOUR'S welfare, imagine that they have
discovered in her proofs of unequivocal insanity ; hence
the present Commission, the motive of which we say nothing
against, though we altogether object to its propriety.
For what is the nature of the evidence brought for-
ward against her Ladyship? - Why, this, forsooth—
that she had been heard to " express her fears that
she should lose her reason," which no lunatic was ever
yet known to do—they being always anxious to be consi-
dered sane ; that she treated her sick child in her own way,
ad of following the advice of her medical men ; that
she blew out a candle one night in the presence of a phy-
sician ; that she offered to make a pair of slippers for Col.
Wt!,narats ; and professed, "in her fits of gloom," an in-
tention of marrying the Duke of WELLINGTON ! There
are various other counts in the indictment, but these are
the chief. Now we will just beg leave to answer a few of
them, as they appear on the cross-examination, and then
leave our readers to judge for themselves. Foremost
among them is the charge that the supposed lunatic treated
her child in a most insane fashion, " for at one time she
would carry him into the open air, and at others spread a
clnantity of toys before him." Undubitable proof of mad-
ness! What can be more frantic than to endeavour to
strengthen an invalid boy's body by the pure fresh air, and to
cheer his mind by giving him such toys as are most suitable
to his years and taste ? And what was the consequence ?
Why, that the child recovered under this mode of treat-
m.ent, "notwithstanding his mother did not comply
with the directions of the medical gentleman !" Charge the
slercond states that Lady SEYMOUR had ordered a pair of
ta be made for Colonel Wir.naLaNs The answer
man,
ausa. shat she was acquainted with the gallant gentle-
presents that promised promised him a pair. Charge the third re-
WELLitack.re\isbe said she intended to marry the Duke of
age, does not 10;hich certainly, considering his Grace's
some lively widol"eh in favour of the sanity of a hand-
silly intention was thirty-eigl:t. But mark when this
lady had been eentin
ouneed When the poor harassed
she was found " sittined in
alg
a Lunatic Asylum, where
with her head shaved,
nawith a straight waistcoat -on,
reply to this charge' s Piece of linen upon it !" Her
acomainteerclusive to our minds. " I
am not personally
acquainted with his bravery. pith his Grace, but I am
a good deal, and I know I have talked'lve been excited at times
t a great deal of non-
sense. I was not accustomed
de?nfinement, and I did
not like being watched and treate
hanadvelbbeeencazuciiriribtietttetder. n the manner I was,
if I had ren,Ye,this time I should
ra'`u'e(il mild treatment.
I am very nervous, and was
first by the screams of the other much
ssfrightened at
of the house
where I am." Another charge brought
her was that
on one occasion she had hidden herself in thtee?himney, to
which she, replied, the. she remembered thequittr:t7teanec
le!rfuct'L el, but tit :-:!ne the was by her rc;:tnt domestic griefs, and fancied that !'e !:card
" her son's voice in distress," This last fancy, however it