The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-01 00:00:00

:PIRI/ OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Select Committee appointed to report on the
aslaries and emoluments of office, have, in our
opinion, very properly recommended
.to the House
of Commons, that it is expedient to repeal the Act
eehich enables the Crown to recompense the ser-
vices of persons holding certain high civil offices;
and that any case of public service, considered to
be deserving, should be submitted to the decision
of the House. Mr. Goulburn has objected to the
. introduction of this topic into the report, as a de-
Intrture from the proper object of inquiry referred to
the Committee, and an invasion of the rights of the
Sovereign. As to the former objection, it is., at the
best, but a technical one, for if the recommendation
be a just and reasonable one, we think Parliament
ought to adopt it, from whatever source it comes;
but, even on technical grounds the objection does
• not appear to be a correct one. A Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into the salaries -and emoluments
of civil office had surely a right to turn their at:en-
' tion to superannuated allowances, and retiring pen-
lions, and to recommend to the Reuse any alteration
which seemed to them to he necessary, either as to
the amount of such allowances, or the principle
on which they arc granted. They have thought
is their duty to recommend that the prieciple should
be changed, and that no such allowances or re-
tiring pensions should be hereafter given to the
classes of public functionaries to whom the report
refers but under the advice and sanetioe of Perlin-
. merit. This brings us to the seetond objection of
- Mr. Goulbern—namely, that to.adopt such a mea-
Pure would be to invade the rights of the Sove-
reign, are/ to violate the principles of the Constitua
tion. As far as the Constitution is tatecerned the
- question is easily settled, for the Sovereign has not
this power by the ancient Constitution, but by a
modern Act of Parliament. There was a time
when several of the great Officers of Stair now ap-
pointed by the Crown were Sited tip by Perlis-
. • ment. We think it right that the power of appoint-
ment to those offices should remain exclusively in
the hands of the Crown—but it seems equally clear
• the pecuniary rewards and ccmpeesetion for
• the past services of the holders of such civil offices
should at least have the approval of the Great
Council of the Nation. It is an essential principle
of the Constitution that the House of Comitione
is the legitimate guardian of the public purse, and
it is of the last importance to the interests of
the country, that such a maxim should not only
.be maintained in theory, but rigidly enforced in
• practice. The Act by which -Ministers, when
• they :had a most subservient House of Com-
mons, secured pensions for themselves, indepen-
• dently of all controul by Parliament over the
merits of each particular case, vi-as itself a gross
violation of this constitutional maxim, It is neither
for the dignity of the Crown nor the interests of the
country that a Minister abould have a prospective
. and indefensible right to a pension, in right of 1
tilling a certain office, without any consideration as
to the manner in which he may hare performed its
duties. This is to place the indolent, the coirupt,
the dishonest, and the inefficient Minister, on a
level as to compensation with a Statesman of the
most able and upright character, whose talents :nay
bane (Wonted the hisemos of his country; and whose
services may have entitled him to its gratitude. Par-
. liament should have that controul over the conduct
of the public servants of the state, which consists
in exercising the power of investigating their claim
to compensation and pensions on their retirement
from office, and advising the Crown to grant or re-
fuse such allowance, This is not to take away the
power of rewarding civil officers from the Crown,
but only to eualify and regulate it, by connecting it
with the salutary application of a great constitu-
tional principle.—elforning Herald.
-It has been stated that "there are 25 livings in
the Isle of Ely, one of which is of the value of
6,0001. per annum, two of 2,4001. each, four be-
tween 1,5001. and 2,0004, four hetween 1,000/.
end 1,5001., two of 1,0001., two of 850/., one of
.500/., and nine' under 500/., and in Me whole but
two resident Incumbents! The same authority
states a near relative of the Bishop of the diocese as
possessing no less than six pieces of preferment,
amounting in value to 5,4004 ; five of them de-
manding constant residence. Now, when any allu-
eion is made to these or similar abuses which un-
happily are allowed to exist, an outcry is generally
raised w'by the possessors and expectants of these dis-
graceful pluralities, that it is done by enemies of
the Church, with a view of bringing -it and religion
into contempt. To such persons Lord Brougham's
admirable effusion to the charitable consceutiou,-
ness of Judas Iscariot is the best answer. Such
persons are no more friends to the Church or to
religion than Judas was to the poor. They are not
the true shepherds, hut mercenary hirelings, whose
voices the sheep know not. The time is happily
gone by for such delusion as this to have any
weight, and people must he blind indeed if they
imagine that, when the spirit of Reform is afloat,
:rue] monstrous abuses as these can pass mire-
sheered. Would it not then be wiser in those. who
have it in their power to check such abuses rather
'than cherish and increase them—and to ask their
•owieconscience, if they have any, whether they are
not themselves inflicting more fatal wounds on the
Church than any which its bitterest foes can be the
cause of ? Reform generally is too long in coming,
,to assume always so moderate a character, when it
;arrives, as it would have done had its opponents
yielded sooner. The Church has, in this point of
view, much more to fear from within than from with-
out; and, as the keys of its safety are still in the
.hands of those most interested in its preservation,
:they must be insane indeed if they do not protect it
:while they can.—Morning Herald.
The affairs of Belgium now assume a very alarm-
leg appearance. The intrigues of the House of
Orange, abetted too much, we fear, by other Powers,
have provoked the indignation of the people against
the supposed friends of that bouse. Serious ex-
•ceases have been committed. The House of Orange
are farther than ever from their object. The affairs
of Belgium are so secondary an affair to this country,
that we trust the Government will not allow US to
be drawn into a war, whatever may be the result of
the present disturbances. The national honour is
not implicated, and we are sure that no object, to be
purchased by a war, cart render it our interest to en-
gage in one. Let those meichants who are con.
scantly raving about the Scheldt, bear in mind that
a maritime war throws the whole of the carrying
trade into the hands of the Americans, that this
brings with it the question of right of search, which
the Americans will -assuredly resis'. The result
niay be disadvantageous to America as well as to
'ourselves ; but that is no reason for rushing on
danger with our eyes open. All our management
hitherto has only counteracted the object we had in
view. If a war takes place, Belgium will, as
matter of course, throw herself into the arms of
Preece; and it would not be possible for us to wrest
.Antwerp front France, except by taking part in a
war which might be as tedious and expensive as the
Nati It would be well to reflect before embarking
i" a War, that of ail the wars of the last century,
there is hardly one, which is not condemned by hi,-
tory.—Atornin Chronicle.
The entrance of the A us'rian troops into Bologna
on the 20th March is now no longer involved int
doubt. The consaquenees of this step must be a
continental war. We catinot for a moment believe
that the Austrian General would take such a step
without the express directions of his Government,
and neither can we believe that the Austrian Go-
vernment would take such a step without weighing
all the consequences of it, and without having deter.
mined to brave them. The speech of M. Casimir
I'errier in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday, is
sufficiently indicative of the course which Fiance
must now take. That speech is moderate in it,
language, and such as it becomes the first Minister
of a great nation to use oil the eve of such events
as are vow shadowed forth; but it discloses a fixes
determination, at the same time, to enter on the

In looking over the debates in both Houses of
Parliament on the question of Reform, we have
been compelled most reluctantly to entertain the
opinion—not, perhaps, quite respectful to certain
persons, however conscientious and involuntary on
our parts—that the enemies of the measure have
actually lost their wits. That innocent and single-
hearted gentleman the Duke of Buckingham, to
whose generous indignation we have before alluded,
was almost petrified by the reports which appeared
to have reached him for the first time on Wednesday
evening, to the effect that such a thing existed as
the sale of seats in Parliament, arid that indivi-
duals had come madly forward to defend the prac-
tice s constitutional and wholesome. His Grace,
we say, who manifestly knows nothing about bo-
roughs, was so astonished and dismayed by what
he then for the first time heard, that he sprung from
his seat (and it was no slight effort) to give the
libel a flat contradiction. The Duke of Buckieg-
ham asked " whether any one in their Lordships'
Howe, or in the Ilouse of Commons, had
ventured to defend that profigate traffic" in
seats for rotten boroughs ? His Grace further,
and with exemplary purity and delicacy of principle,
declared that one of his objections to the present
Bill was its failing to make any provision against
that gross abuse—viz. the traffic in returning Mem-
bers to Parliament, or rather its extending that
traffic. Now, if the Dulie of Buckingham's vote
For or against the Bill should really depend on the
fact of the sale of seats,—or, what is the same
thing, the purchase of them being established or
refuted by a reference to the debates in Parliament,
we shall merely and most respectfully solicit his
Grace to read the reports of the last three weeks' ,
proceedings in the Hous© of Commons; or, if he
discredits the reports •of those vile things called
newspapers, we do entreat the Noble Duke to I