The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The attempt to effect a counter-revolution in Lisbon,
it will be observed, has failed—signally failed—and
we confess we rejoice at it. Tile establishment of the
Constitution of 1820 may have been the unconstitu-
tional act of a military power, and therefore not to he
supported or defended ; but any attempt to unsettle,
that Constitution by the same means is only to give a
sanction to a precedent bad in principle, and most
dangeroos in its application. The people of Portugal
are in danger of being made too familiar with changes
in their political condition effected through purely
military means, to feel much respect for those improve-
ments that may be introduced by the legitimate ma-
chinery of constitutional government. The supporters
of the Constitution of 1826 ought to have allowed
the question of its modification to go before the
Cortes, the only power whose authority should be
recognised as capable of giving a lawful sanction
to any change in the form of Government. Sup-
pose even that the ill advised proceeding of the 3d and
4th had succeeded, must it not have been obvious that,
effected by such a means, the change would have still
left a deep feeling of dissatisfaction in the minds of
the defeated party ? We have that confidence in the
good sense and patriotism of time great body of the
Portuoriese
people that we are convinced the repre-
seiatatives of their opinions will not be the abettors of
the anarchical proceedings aimed at by many of those
who clamoured loudest for the Constitution of 1820.
And, therefore, we think it was the duty of those who
took upon themselves the task of advising her Majesty
to have waited the assembling of the Cortes, and there
• nosed whatever plan might have seemed best adapted
poi
to promote the re.
al interests of the country. Again we.
say that we are glad o:c this defeat to establish a form of
Government, no matter how desirable, by means of
which no friend of constituti6:aal liberty can approve.
We observe that insinuations ilather than direct
charges are levelled against the Engfis,l'. Gov
to ernment
term
for what some clear-sighted writers are please.,.l
" intervention" in favour of a counter-revolution. In-
tervention indeed i Why, has not the attempt at a
counter-revolution been defeated ; and who will ven-
ture to say that it would have been so, had the Bri-
tish Government chosen to support it by a single
broadside from a single ship ? England has interfered
to her own honour, and to time honour of human na-
ture. Refusing to take any part whatever in the poli-
tical movement, the representative of the British Go-
vernment employed the means at his disposal, and em-
ployed them effectually, to protect the Queen and the
Court from the violence of the excited soldiery. Were
it not for the presence of the marines and the fleet, we
agree with our Correspondent that there is reason to
apprehend that the most deplorable consequences must
. have resulted. And this is the interference that is
condemned—condemned, too, by those who are bold
enough to charge the British Government with a reck-
less indifference to human life I—Morning Chronicle.
We revert to the affairs of the Church, of which
we trust that the sequel of these remarks, however the
opening of them may give offence to this or that per-
son, will prove that we are the most staunch and true
friends. With respect to the patronage of all the new
'churches to be constructed at the cost of liberal indi-
viduals in and near London, the Bishop of the diocese
must not, we tell him frankly, think for a moment of
appropriating so vast a property as the patronage of
them to himself and his see ; he must cast the idea
from him in an instant, if he ever harboured it, as the
"accursed thing," or he will create a confusion in this
metropolis, of which no one can forsee the issue. The
episcopal jurisdiction over them which belongs to his
Lordship of right, as their diocesan, is quite enough,
with the due administration of the rest of the see, for
any single human powers. We have ourselves heard
of no better proposition than that which we suggested
—that they should be divided between the Universities
of the realm ; and if the King's College were admitted
as a partner, so that it might have the means of re-
warding its meritorious masters (as is the case with
Chrit's Hospital), we should see no objection. The
letter of " Verax," though coming from a respectable
quarter, does not at all affect our general argument or
our opinion. The affair spoken of by the Glocester-
shire curate, in our paper of Monday, is one to
which we refer with peculiar pain. Build the Bishop
of that diocese a palace out of the funds appropriated
to the purpose of supplying the poor houseless clergy
of small and deserted parishes with houses 011!
shame, where is thy blush ! We trust this will never
be heard of again. The holding a stall at West-
minster in commendam with the bishopric is bad
enough ; but there are other lawn sleeves sullied with
that practice as well as those of the person in ques-
tion. Once for all, we must most earnestly entreat
the dignitaries of the Church to do nothing that can
in anywise, at this most trying moment, render the
defence of them and their order more difficult
to their friends and those of the establishment.
Having said this much, we must face about and
endeavour to repel, as we will with all our force, an
unjust aggression on the Church; and this is the more
necessary, as it comes under the powerful form of an
act of Parliament—the Act, that of the 6th and 7th
of William IV., entitled " For the Commutation of
" Tithes in England and 'Wales." We have some
thoughts of reviewing the charge recently published
by the Bishop of Exeter, with ,some parts of which,
judging only from the summary of its contents, we do
not agree. But it surprises us much that the mis-
chievous character of clause 29 in the above act should
have escaped his Lordship's attention, and that of the
more intelligent branch of the Legislature. That
clause provides that no greater quantity of land than
twenty acres shall be given as a commutation for
tithes ! Why ? we ask. Why may not a clergyman
barter an interest of one kind which he has on the
land of his parish for an interest of another kind— for
an equivalent portion of the land itself ? We know
that some nonsense will be talked about the Statute
of Mortmain. This question has nothing to do with
the Statute of Mortmain. Here is no purchase or be-
quest in the case. The incumbent has as great an hold
of the land now as he ever will have. He does
not increase the possessions of the Church, for
value of land (in its modus) is given for land : he
simply changes time name of his property. Now, there
aie some deeds of wrong which we have felt it our
duty to reprehend on the part of the Radicals ; but the
insertion of this clause it no crime of theirs—it is a
pure Whig job. The aristocracy of that proud and
rapacious faction do not wish to have any landlords
but themselves. They do not wish the oppressed far-
mer under their holding to have any indulgent land-
lord to point to in the person of a neighbouring clergy-
man ; for we doubt not that the clergy will, up to the
extent of their means, be, as they have ever been, most
kind and considerate in their dealings with their pa-
rishioners. Besides, we had understood that the great ob-
ject of the Tithe Commutation Bill was to prevent paro-
chial quarrels. Now do what we can under this new act,
when it shall be in complete operation, you will have a due
portion of conflicting interests, and of course of rural
disagreements, on the subject of your rent-charges,
though perhaps not so many as limier the tithing sys-
tem ; and the haven of escape to which the country
looked from that second source of dissatisfaction was
a more facile commutation of the rent-charge for land.
Why, then, prevent that commutation in the first in-
stance ? Why, indeed, but for the anti-social and in-
solent reason mentioned above—that time Whig land-
lords wish to have no competitors iu the possession of
time terra firma of the country ? mit we can tell
them, that the more they isolate themselves, the more
insecure they render their position—" defealit nume-
rus."—Times.
The two unhappy Queens, who arc under time pro-
tection of Lord Palmerston and his quadruple al-
liance, seem to have anything but a pleasant life of
it, in playing the part of Royalty upon Constitutional
hrones, surrounded by Constitutional soldiers, and re-
minded every now and then that they are but Vices
Queens to his supreme Majesty—the most Constitu-
tional people ! Into Spain more than 20,000 foreign
bayonets were sent, by virtue of the quadruple al-
liance, to support the Estatuto Real, which was
pompously proclaimed as the emanation of liberal wis-
dom, and of all plans of Government the most in ac-
cordance with the national wants and the national
will. A military mob in one night demolished the
.Estatuto Real, and time whole fabric of Government
built upon it. Along with that the great work of