The Sun.
London, England, 1838-07-24 00:00:00

LONDON :
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 24, 1838.

We would call attention to the new source of patronage
sought by the Board of 'Dale, under the pretence of
amending the law of pirtnership. The attempt first shewed
itself last year in a Bill to enab!e the B ,ard of Trade to
grant " Letters Patent" to Trading Companies ; but the Act
was so bad and defective that not one Company would
avail itself of it, which has given rise to the Bill now
before the Lords to amend that Act. The object of both
the Act of last year and the present Bill to amend it, is to
transfer a patronage to the Board of Trade which has hi-
therto been only the privilege of Parliament. It may be
questionable to bestow such new and unconstitutional
powers on any department of State, or subject the freedom
of commerce to the bare possibility of the abuse of such
extensive powers. At any rate, the Board of Trade must
be conducted with more efficiency and ability before the
mercantile community will be satisfied to invest it with

such powers.
It is notorious that the law of partnership in England is
defective, more particularly in the difficulty the common
law presents where the partners ate numerous, in sueing
and being sued, and in sueing each other. A remedy for
this has been loudly called for, and is every day more
wanted, as Joint-Stock enterprises spring up, in which even
aow so large a portion of the community are more or less
interested. But this should by no means furnish a pretence
for placing such large and growing interests under the pa-
tronage of the Board of Trade. It is open to numberless
obvious abuses, not the greatest of which is the expense
and the tardy attention paid to such matters at Govern-
ment offices ; while, at the same time, it needlessly burdens
the Government with an implied interference in private mat-
ters, aad which may be pertinaciously exercised.
The Joint-stock Banking Act was not framed on
such narrow principles of legislation, as somehow, of
late, have become fashionable in certain Government
departments. In this Act, no patronage was de-
manded for Government—nor one evil remedied at the
expense of creating another of greater magnitude. Tne
object of that Act was to protect the public, and if it had
extended protection to partners inter se, it would be a per-
fect piece of legislation. This Act lays down clearly the
conditions to be complied with to come within its opera•
tion without the expense of a sin4le shilling, or delay or
solicitation. It, in fact, merely requires the mimes and
places of abode of each partner to be reg'st. red once a
year at the Stamp-office. We ai-e quite sure, had the
legislature of that day burthened this valuable Act with
the obnoxious patronage of " Letters P•itent," we should
not now have one Joint Stock Bank where we have ten.
It is the duty of Government to stimul ite rather than
restrict commerce--in fact to "leave it to itself," merely re-
moving impediments. We shall return to this subject ;
meantime it is to be hoped the principle of this Bill will be
fully discussed in the Lords, and not smuggled through
its stages, as it was in the House of Commons, where it
passed through in 1e,,5 than a week !

The Times must hate mi-r.perted Sir R. INGLIS this
morning ; and if the Hon. Barn t does not wish to stand
convicted of talking-lill-natured nonsense, " he must con-
descend to notice th'e,-error. He objected last night to
allowing religious instruction to Roman Catholic criminals,
whom he and other Legislators order to be ant up in
gaol, because the " State has established one particular
Church as the authorized depository of its faith," accord-
ing .o which the State seems a starveling prostitute, and
the Church a resiretable pawnbroker. Do, Reader, trouble
yourself to consider the meaning of these words, separately
and collectively.
The term State, if it have any meaning at all, stands for
the aoregate of the people acting in their corporate capa-
city : the term Church, means either a stone building or a
body of doctrines : and the term Faith is another phrase
for those doctrines, as they are taught in the stone building;
or it means the combined sentiment of belief, hope, and
confidence in futurity, of which man has in all ages, in
some shape or other, been Conscious. Now,
Sir ROBERT
affirms that the aggregate peoplo have established either
a stone or a brick building, or a particular body of doc-
trines, as the authorised depository of a body of doctrines,
or of a sentiment. If the sentiment be deposited
in Oe stone building, we presume it can be found, and
Sir RozERT will have the extraordinary merit of enabling
the rest of mankind to see and handle the objects of con-
sciousness. DESCARTES asserted that the abode of sen-
timent was a little gland. Drs. GALL and SPuazitEtat
insist that the sentiments inhabit little portions of the brain,
a palpable improvement on the Cartesian theory ; but Sir
ROBERT INGLIS is a far Operior philosopher, for he
declares that they are deposited by :L=t of Parliament in a
stone buil ing. It is not, however, the faits, ;:i individual
which is .so deposited, but the essence of the fah
mass. which has by some process or other long aV d;s.
covered by such profound philosophers as Sir ROBEItT
INGLis—wilose modest, silence puts to shame our PArYs