The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-30 00:00:00

up by stating that his party decided upon abo-
lishing the props and mainstays of Royalty—so
th.:. Corporations have been designated by Tory writers
and speakers—in order to establish perfect equality
in Ireland ; it being, it seems, a dogma :of the
new Tory creed, that " it is neither prudent,
politic, nor safe to give to one patty an absolute and
uncontrolled ascendency." Agreeing perfectly in the
truth and wisdom of this dogma, may we ask how
ancient is the date of its Tory adoption ? The Tories
did not certainly entertain such radical opinions in the
palmy days of their power; for we find that while Mr.
Peel was Home Secretary, and Mr. Goulburn Secre-
tary for Ireland, no steps • were taken to abolish this
imprudent, impolitic, and unsafe ascendency, which
the Tories now deprecate, and which the Orange fac-
tion then revelled in with uncontrolled violence in Ire-
land. It is impossible that the British public can be-
come the dupes of such impudent imposture. The
people of England must see through the hypocritical
cant and vicious motives of those corruptionists who,
when the period for inquiry into their malversation has
arrived, seeing the impossibility of retaining that power
and those trusts which they have flagitiously perverted
and abused, with demoniac malice invoke destruction
upon their own heads, in order to enjoy in their last
throes of agony the fiendish pleasure of beholding the
enemies of their peculations and oppressions over-
whelmed in the same ruins. We shall return •to this
subject.—Morning Chronicle.
Statesmen, and people who are not statesmen, go to
work by different methods. Of all descriptions of
persons who undertake the duty of political govern-
ment, we should say that speculative. and experimental
rulers are the most dangerous ; but of all speculators
the wildest and most absurd are those who attempt to
build analogies out of insufficient materials, and to in-
sutute practical measures on the strength of analogies
so constructed. These remarks have been suggested
to us by a Parliamentary paper which accident has
thrown into our hands. It is entitled " Papers relat-
ing to the Ecclesiastical Establishments of Prussia,"

and has resulted from an inquiry set on foot by our wise
Ministers, with the obvious, indeed the acknowledged,
purpose of assimilating the church establishment and
institutions of Leland to those of the above-mentioned
military power, " whose perfect system of religious
toleration, which is not only established by law, but
ingrafted practically upon the habits of the people,
renders Prussia a model for the imitation of Other
countries in such matters,"---at least so dogmatizes the
circumspect and profound Lord Palmerston, in a
letter to our Ambassador at. Berlin. The greater por-
tion of the 20 " questions" which have been trans-
. . _ _

mitt :d through the said Minister to the Prussian Go-
vernment, on the subject of its ecclesiastical institu-
tions, are framed for the manifest purpose of eliciting
a►tswers favourable to certain projects of the O'Con-
nell clique, for new-modelling the church of Ireland
according to views of an hostile nature towards the
United Kingdom, and the Protestant major:ti of its
inhabitants. But, as it seems to us, the scheme
breaks down at tl►e very threshold. How transfer

1) Ireland, by any expedient of sidden
he state of a country where it is admitted that
he " habits of the people" constitute an essential

feature of that system which we arc called
upon to imitate as a model ? How transfer
at once to Ireland the principles and attributes
of the Prussian method of providi►►g for the clergy,
when that method is as various as are the provinces of
the Prussian monarchy, and the relations of the several
sects are modified by circumstances in which the GO-
vernment has had no, or an indefinitely small, con-
cern ? Nor do the answers to the interrogatories, as
happens frequently when the motive is unfair, serve to

helpi the conspiracy against the established church of
Ireland. It appears, for instance, in reply to the
question whether, if the members of a given sect, in a
given district, were to be diminished, the number of
clergymen would follow the reduction of their flocks ?
" that the case is not providedlbr by the law of Prussia"

—it is left to the real exigency, operated upon by the
consent of the Government—a military and absolute

Government, be it remembered—by which, however,
special titles, " and as regards the Catholic Church.
" its constitutional privileges are always respected."
Will our Ministers, then, be satisfied to apply the
same rule in favour of the Irish Protestant Church, and

not suffer its constitutional and established privileges to
be trampled on by a tyrannical rah'ale ? It is, with
reference to Ireland alone, what the Roguish Church
is with regard to the whole of Prussia, the church of
the minority. Again, we are called upon to assimi-
late ecclesiastical institutions, and do for the Roman
Catholics what is done in Prussia. The Crown in

Prussia possesses an authority over Papists of which
the King of England is desiitute. The King of
Prussia sends his con.O. daire to the chapter of each
Roman Catholic diocese, which is obliged by a brief
of Pope Pius VII to elect for Bishop persona»l regi
(warm. The Romish Bishop, therefore, in effect, is
appointed by the Crown. Will the Roman Catholic
priesthood of Ireland vest a like power in his Britannic
Majesty ? We apprehend not. These gentry even
despatched an emissary to Rome to dissuade the Pope
from issuing any hull, or signing any concordat to that
effect ; if we recollect right, they even denied his
authority to do so. They alleged that the constitution
of Irish Popery would not suffer it. Very well : if
the Popish Church of Ireland be so constituted as to
forbid the establishment of those political securities
which are acceded to by Popery in other countries, as
the condition of the indulgences which it prays for,
is the Parliament of the United Kingdom to blame
for withholding what the King of Prussia grants Prus-
sian Roman Catholics? And what again is that ?
Is it any where said in the answers to the Palmerston
interrogatories, that the old revenues and possessions
of the Protestant Church in Prussia have been
made over to the Ro:nish priesthood, for perpetuat-
ing under the nickname of " education" the ranco-
rous and anti-Protestant- superstition of their laity.
But, main, we are told with an air of triumph, that
zr)

in Prussia, and throughout Germany, all Churches
are equal by law. It suffices to say that in Leland,
and throughout the whole United Kingdom, all
churches, fur the best reasons, are not equal; and
that an organic change for no apparent end but to
accommodate our ecclesiastical institutions to those
of a distant country, is one which, though Lord Pal-
merston may recommend, the British nation repudiates.
Lastly, we are told, that in the Rhenish provinces of
Prussia the Crown pays a salary to the Popish Clergy,
as a compensation for their landed property which was
seized by the French when they made a conquest of
those provinces. Then, we put it broadly to the Whig-
Radical Ministers of England, will they or will they
not bring in a Bill for making the Irish priesthood sti-
pendiaries of the State, and thus placing them in one
prominent respect, though not in all, on a footing (viz.
as functionaries in the public service) with the Clerg,y
of the Protestant religion ? Will they do that, or will
they not ? If not, they' are paltry and peddling hy-
pocrites, whose words and acts are in open and bare-
faced contradiction. The unanswerable truth of the
matter is this :—The argument of " numbers," ad-
duced by the Popish demagogues, is a fatal stumbling-
block to their own cause. Ireland is no less a portion
of the United Kin ;dom than Yorkshire. The nume-
rical relation of Protestants and Roman Catholics
must, by every principle of the Constitution, and
every law of common sense, be estimated by a re-
gard to the whole kingdom, as recognized under the
Union of 1800. According to that calculation the
Roman. Catholic body amounts to not so much as one-
third of the gross population of Great Britain and Ire-
land ; and when pushed by the pretence of Irish num-
bers, that is the ground on which the Statesmen and
Legislators of the empire ought to take their unflinch-
iiig stand.—Times.
Whether the Stamp Duty on Newspapers be re-
duced or abolished—and reduction or abolition is now

become inevitable—three are three great objects to be
steadily kept in view. Time first is, to give the widest
pos6bie scope to the exercise of talent and the dif-
fusion of intelligence ; the second, to protect from
illegal competition the property of those who, on the
with of the law, have invested large capital in
Smewsprpers ; and the third, to take every possible
precaution against trenching on the rights of the sub-
ject in the attempt to suppress the contraband trade.
With regard to the first object—the utmost diffusion
of knowledge—under the conviction that whoever
advocates ignorance is an enemy to the State and

to humanity, we have always been anxious for the
total abolition of the Newspaper Stamp Duty, and if
we have acceded to its being reduced to a penny, it is
not that we abate a fraction of our original claim, nor.
are we willing to forego its full liquidation, but be-
cause, as Mr. O'Connell would say, fearing that we
should not be able to obtain the whole of the debt,
we are willing to accept an instalment of 15e. in the
pound. This was the principle on which we acted
when the present Earl Spencer was Chancellor of
the Exchequer, and when of the daily Metropolitan
Press we stood alone in our denunciations against the
existing duty. This is the principle on which we now
act, and in accordance with which we have recently
contended that if the reduction to a penny take place a
clause should be introduced for the total cessation of all
' duty after the expiration of one or two years. This
would effect the desired change without giving any
shock to Stamped Newspaper property ; but, for our
own part, we should much prefer the immediate aboli-
tion of the duty, with compensation on a graduated
scale to the proprietors of the legal Press, to any reduc-
tion whatever. We have great respect for Messrs.
Grote, Hume, and the other gentlemen who composed
the deputation which on last Wednesday waited on Lord
Melbourne and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
nor would we suspect them to sacrifice principle to
popularity ; but we must say that in their laudable
zeal to free the Press from its trammels, they seen to
have completely overlooked or disregarded the .ne-
cessity of protecting the legal Newspaper trade from
illegal competition. Their sympathies would appear
to have been wholly engrossed by the smuggler, and
while they declaimed indignantly against the forcible
entry clause as a violation of the sacred rights of the
subject, the fraud on the public revenue and the
plunder of private property committed by illegal pub-
lications was deemed unworthy of allusion. We
are as averse to the existing law as ally of these gen-
thrrnm can possibly be ; but we arc desirous to
see it repealed by constitutional means, and not put
in force against one party, while another is suffered to
violate it with impunity. While the Executive neglects
any legitimate means fir the suppression of unstamped
Newspapers, every penny of duty levied on the stamped
journals is a robbery ; and in self-defence the pro-
prietors of the latter would be fully justified in fol-
lowing the example of the contrabandist, as the law
which denies them protection can have no claim on
their observance. On this account every allowance
should be made for the solicitude of the Government
to secure the enforcement of the law, and we cannot
forbear the expression of our surprise, that certain
members of the deputation should declare themselves
ready to be a party to its violation. Such declara-
tion we regard, to say the least, as unbecoming and in-
decorous, for who can be expected to pay deference to
the law, if its promulgators themselves set the ex•
ample of disobedience ? A few days since, we
stated that the size of a paper legalized by the
penny duty, was not to be fixed by the standard
of any particular journal, and we are now enabled
to corroborate this statement, as we have heard
from good authority that the penny sta np will carry
a newspaper of 1,530 superficial square inches in
extent, which is to be the maximum. This extent is
more, by nearly one-half, than the largest single
Sheet daily journal in London. 11l fixing upon this size,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer has evinced a most lau-
dable and careful desire to respect existing interests,
and the limitation of size earl only affect those journals
which are in the habit of crowding the advertisements
of two days into one 's paper, to the great injury
of advertisers. We cannot close our ob.,:ervations
without expressing our surprise, not to lire our feelings
any stronger de.signation, that some Gentlemen con-
nected with the Press, who attended all the public
and private meetings with the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, and who expressed themselve satisfied at the
measure to be introduced, should subsequently have
presented a petition to the House of Lords against a
measure to which they were themselves a party. It is
unnecessary to add, we have not been a party to such
proceedings, nor that wet e we aware of its being in
progress until it was published through the usual chan-
nels.—Morning Advt.) tiser.

The Lord Chancellor is singularly unfortunate in
his first of of legislation, for his scheme for im-
proving the administration of justice is rot only found
fault with by his twin-brother on the Equity Bench,
Lord Langdale, and other Noble and Learned Lords
of much higher authority ; but it is treated with con-
temptuous and insulting disrespect by one, at least, of
the journals which is generally understood to speak
the sentiments of a considerable portion of the Ad-
ministration. "It is impossible, of course," says the
Morning Cnronicb, '' to kncyx what such a body as
the House of Lords will do; but if they be guid...(l
by anything like reason tire•,• will put an end to inter-
mediate appeals to the Chief Justice of the Chancel y,
and to the political functions of the Lord Chancellor."
This, considering that it comes from a Minis-
terial paper, is rather a rude slap in the face for
poor Lord Cottenha►n, who declares that he has
no intention to put an end either to the in-
termediate appeals to the Chief Justice of the
Chancery, or to the political functions of the Lord
Chancellor, and who, therefore, _ according to the

Chronick, is a person not " guided by an vthing,
like reason." We agree with the Chronicle in think-
ing- that one appeal is enough in any case, and are not
quite certain that the general administration of justice
would not be improved by abolishing the right of ap-
peal altogether, or placing it at least under much more

rigorous restrictions than at present With respect to many
of the ordinary subjects of litigation. This would ma-
nifestly tend to improve the general character, high as
it already is in this country, both 'of the original and
appellate tribunals, impressing upon the fanner, and
upon those who appoint the Judges, a more acute and
pervading sense of responsibility, and relieving the lat-
ter from the confusion and embarrassment of mind,
from the painful and paralyzing consciousness of inade-
quacy, which can seldom fail to accompany an exces-
sive pressure of business, or an inordinate accumula-
tion of arrears. The question of the separation of the
judicial from the political functions of the Lord
Chancellor, is one which seems to us, we own, to
justify a greater degree of hesitation. If the union
of these functions has been attended by some incon-
venience or injury, it can scarcely be denied that it
has also produced important advantages which it
seems impossible otherwise to attain. It is difficult to
believe that the constant presence in the Councils of
the Sovereign of the actual and acknowledged head of
the legal profession, of one who cannot have divested

himself of his professional sympathies and habitudes,

of one who must of necessity, in a great majority of
instances, have emerged, by means of diligence, inte-
.

gritv, and learning, from the middle classes of society,
.
can fail to operate advantageously upon the political.
character and conduct of the Government. \Vho so
fit to advise the Sovereign in respect to the exercise of
his prerogative of mercy in all cases of difficulty and
doubt, as the head of the law, still in daily intercourse
with the most grave, learned, and able lawyers, and
still retaining in a great degree the tendencies and
sympathies -of a plebeian origin ? Who so sure
as such an. adviser to associate the confidence of
the people with the exercise of this necessary, and
exalted, and glorious, but still most dangerous, prero-
gative? Who so well qualified to edify and guide the
Administration in all those transactions and &ire-
rcnces with Foreign Powers, which rest upon the true
construction of the law of nations, as one who, bred a
lawyer from his youth, is still daiiv conversant with
the principles and precedents of a Court to which
equity has supplied a name and a foundation ? The
single object of Government in England has been
said to be the appointment and support of the• Judges.
If this be something more than the truth, it must be
admitted that the most important duty of Government
is fulfilled if good Judges be appointed, and their de-
crees duly enforced. And who so fit to advise the
Sovereign who are the lawyers among his contempo-
raries, best qualified fur Judges as the individual at
the head of the law, and still actively and habitually
engaged in the 'administration of justice, as, in other
words, a Lord Chancellor, whose judicial I avJ not
been separated from his political .functions ? The
condition just mentioned is evidently indispensable, :f
the advantages we have poin:ed out are worth pre,erv-
jug. No one who reflects upon the subject can be-
lieve that, after. the separation of the judicial func-
tions from the Great Seal, the risen to whom it is