The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-31 00:00:00

supports. The occasion, about fifty years ago,
when several Lords-Lieutenant were removed
from their situations because they voted against
the Administration of the day, was not to be
compared in importance to the present crisis.
Neither the Ministry nor the King could then
attach such consequences to a vote, or require
so exclusively the exercise of all the influence
which the Crown can command. Yet so strong
was the conviction in the Administration that a
Lord-Lieutenant should not be permitted sys-
tematically to oppose the king's Government,
that two Noble Lords, who, unlike Lord Howe,
had resigned the office of Chamberlain to the
Queen on account of their opposition, were
commanded likewise to surrender the honour of
representing his Majesty in the provinces of
his Kingdoms The Ministry of that time,
without being actuated by any morbid de-
licaby towards their adversaries, or caring
any thing about threats of future investiga-
tion, cleared the counties of such chiefs as
resisted their measures in Parliament. Other
aamples have since occurred of the dismissal
of Lords Lieutenant, because they incurred
the displeasure or excited the suspicion of
the Government. What shall wo then say of
the retention in their places of thirty-three of
these high and right honourable functionaries,
who not only oppose the expressed will of the
King and the declared purposes of the Mi-
nistry, but the vote of the House of Com-
mons,—the obvious interests, and the almost
unanimous desires of the nation ? Some of
these Noble and Right Hon. antagonists of
Reform, as if to combine the honours of the
Crown against itself, accumulate in their single
persons or families the Lieutenancy of several
counties. Thus we find the Duke of Beaufort
at the head of Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire,
and Brecon. Earl Powis is Lord Lieutenant of
Shropshire, and his son, Lord Clive, of Mont-
gomeryshire ; while Sir W. W. Wynn enjoys
the honour of representing the counties of
Denbigh and Merioneth, and the Earl of Lons-
dale commands in Cumberland and Westmore-

land. Is this a time for permitting the enemies
of the Administration to enjoy the favours of the
Crown, and to oppose the great measure of
Reform, in which the King, the Ministry, and
the nation, are so deeply interested, with all the
influence of their high office ?—Times.
As the Caledonian Church in Regent-square
has unfortunately attracted too much attention
within the last two or three weeks, both from

the religious and irreligious part of the public,
some curiosity was yesterday felt about the re-
newal or discontinuance of those frantic exhi-
bitions to which the Reverend Pastor had pre-
viously lent encouragement, and the defence of
which he has not yet relinquished. A con-
siderable crowd of strangers, therefore, swelled
the multitude of his usual hearers in expectation
of a second display of religious insanity, if not
of the recurrence of a second Pentecost. Happily
,Or the nerves and feelings of the sober part of
the audience, the pretended spirit which presides
over the oracular gifts of the chapel was not in
a humour for exerting himself, and neither "cloven
tongues" were seen nor other tongues heard ex-
cept that of Mr. Irving himself. One poor
madman, a stranger to the congregation, did in•
deed claim a hearing, but his gifts not having
been previously passed in review, by the Rev.
Pastor, he was stopped as a profane brawler, in-
stead of being allowed to proceed as an inspired
prophet. This unseasonable interruption was
an accident, it is true, to which any con-
gregation is sometimes exposed ; but was
not the maniac, whoever he may be, attracted
to Mr. Irving's chapel, by hearing that it was
a bedlam in which he might exercise his noisy
calling as well as the other professors of " un-
known tongues" who had got the spiritual coun-
tenance of the reverend superintendent ? So
long as one lunatic is permitted to break in upon
the solemn devotions of a religious assembly,
with unintelligible mummeries at which Catholics
would have blushed in the darkest periods of
Popish superstition, another may think he has
the same right,—and who is to decide the ques-
tion between them but the mad patron of one of
the madmen ? The former may declare that
the one is inspired, and the other possessed;
but good Christians, who believe neither in mo-
dern inspiration nor possession, will derive no
indemnity for the agitation of their feelings, and
the disturbance of their devotions, from his vo-
ciferous assurance that he is able to discern spi-
rits, and can vouch for the heavenly credentials
of his favourite. As we have before stated, these
frantic exhibitions have already gone too far, and
ought to be stopped. The Caledonian Church
was not built for a miracle-shop. The subscribers
who supplied the funds for the construction of
that elegant place of worship, and the trustees
who became security for their honest application,
never contemplated the appropriation of the edi-
fice to the vociferatious of persons who ought
rather to have their heads shaved than their
tongues unloosed. These trustees will, there-
fore, neglect their duty to the public and to them-
selves, if they do not immediately command
these pretended miraculous nuisances to cease— or
shut up the church so profaned, and sell the build-
ing for the benefit of the fund for which its surplus
proceeds were ultimately destined.— Times.

It is somewhat inconsistent in Journals which
continually assert that the whole people are in
favour of the Ministerial plan of Reform, while
it is opposed only by a contemptible number of
Aristocrats, to urge, as they are doing at present,
the formation of political unions, and the or-
ganisation of national guards, for the purpose of
ensuring the triumph of a cause which, upon-
their own showing, is already certain of success.
If the King be sincerely resolved to support the
Ministers in carrying an efficient Bill of Reform,
and if the Ministers act in a manner that de-
serves the confidence of the people, for what
purpose are the people to arm—and with what
enemy are they to contend ? The people have
hitherto fought the battle of Reform with the con-
stitutional weapons, which, in the hands ofa united
nation, are irresistible. From one end of the
kingdom to another they have expressed their
opinion in city, county, town, and parish meet-
ings. Thence addresses to the throne and pe-
titions to Parliament have made their sentiments
on Reform known in language too energetic to
he ur heeded, and too unequivocal to be misun-
derstood. These petitions and addresses, which
embody the feelings and the opinion of the
country, are the constitutional weapons, which,
with the assistance of a House of Commons, con-
fessing its own corrupt state, which a large mea-
sure of Reform alone can purify, must ensure
the complete and yeaceful triumph of the na-
tional cause. Why, then, should the people
be called upon to descend from the moral 'van-
tage ground which they now so judiciously oc-
cupy, and take
i up a position where the autho-
rity of reason s likely to be subverted by the
ascendency of the bayonet ? We recollect
that last year, when the Duke of Wellington