The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-17 00:00:00

filthy, destitute, forgotten, and hitherto despised
~." S however, frern re:A-!ng satisfi!A
with such a result, the noble advocate of this most
noble charity only looked upon that success as an in-
citement to fresh exertions. " Had they done no-
thing at all," he urged, "they might plead that all
was hopeless, but the great measure of success that
bad hitherto attended them would be turned to their
condemnation if they did not go further." And they
will go further! We have too much confidence in
the philanthropy, or rather let us say in the
justice of our countrymen, to imagine for one
moment tbat such an institution once fairly estab-
lished will be suffered to dwindle into insignificance
for want of support. It appeals to no maudling sen-
timentality, its claims are based on a sense of justice,
and earnestly enforced by a strong necessity. It re-
quires no " throat of brass or adamantine lungs," it
hardly requires the use of pen or printing-press, to
set forth the terrible nature of that necessity which
has called for the establishment of ragged schools.
It stares us in the face in every thoroughfare of the me-
tropolis. It speaks to all who have hearts to feel and
eyes to observe, which latter class are, strange to say,
of much the smallest number—as that eloquent
spokesman of the poor, THOMAS HOOD, has truly
shown, when he ?makes the repentant Lady in the
" Lady's Dream" exclaim—
" The wounds I might have heard!
The human sorrow and smart!
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part :
But evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as want of heart

The excuse of ignorance cannot now be pleaded; on
the contrary, it is become rather the fashion of late
to talk about the sorrows and sufferings of the poor.
The advisability of such schemes for their ameliora-
tion as that of the ragged schools has never been
called in question. Their usefulness, the report of
Tuesday evening has sufficiently demonstrated.
What obstacle now remains ? What is to prevent
the generous co-operation of all who are happy
enough to have the means of assisting in the good
work ? Why_ should not ragged schools spread
throughout the length and breadth of this land—a
more glorious movement than any crusade or foreign
mission. "It is well to send out missions to the
heathen," exclaimed Lord ASHLEY, " and I re
joice that it is so; but there are to be found
instances of heathenism just- as striking in the
courts and alleys of this Christian city, as in the
depths of Pekin or the haunts of Timbuctoo." From
this often, but never too-often, repeated observation,
the Duke of ARGYLE, who took part in the meeting
of Tuesday, drew a very practical and useful conclu•
sion. "Some persons," he observed, " objected to
missions to the heathen world, on the ground that in
their own land they were surrounded by heathens,
and the assertion, he regretted to say, was too true; but
let all who withheld their sympathy and support from
foreign missions on such grounds come forward and
support ragged schools, and they would soon have a
glorious union and overflowing fir ids." "In his Elegy
on a Country Churchyard,' the poet GRAY," con-
tinued the Noble Duke, "lamented the great powers
of intellect that were lost in the obscurity of poverty;
but in the children whose welfare we are met to pro-
mote, intellectual power, instead of being undeve-
loped, is misdirected to the most grievous purposes of
evil. They become the victims of the hangman or
the inmates of the gaol. It is from such a fate that
the Ragged School Union is formed to rescue them."
Considered in this point of view, the claims of the
union are so obvious that it appears almost a work of
supererogation to recommend it to the charity of the
philanthropist or the consideration of the commu-
nity. We do so, nevertheless, and with unhesitating
confidence, for never was there a cause better de-
serving of support, or one that appealed more power-
fully to the best-sympathies of our nature.

To use an Irish mode of expression, Tuesday night
was a grand field-day in the House of Lords on the sub-
ject of that fearful night-mare—Agricultural Distress.
It is known that his Grace the Duke of BucKiNoßAai
has already been crushed beneath the weight of the
night-mare, and from the pathetic, and vehement ex-
pressions of Noble Dukes and Earls under the pres-
sure, there is no saying how soon other prominent
members of the aristocracy may be involved in simi-
lar results; for one of the allegations made by a Noble
Lord was, that the land was going rapidly out of
cultivation, as the result of free trade, that the free-
traders held heavy mortgages upon it, and their ob-
ject was to depreciate the value in order to foreclose
and become possessed of it at a reduced value I That
many of the broad domains attached to ducal and
baronial castles are subject to heavy incumbrances,
forming a night-mare much more burdensome, and
from which much more is to be apprehended than
from free trade, is quite true, but it certainly requires
a considerable exercise of faith, not to say credulity,
to believe that mortgagees who look to derive half-
yearly interest from investment of capital should
wilfully cut off the only source from which the
interest can be paid, namely the rental derived from
the occupancy. However, the statement of the
Noble Duke is not to be doubted, that broad lands
and extensive domains are heavily incumbered ; that,
in numerous cases, the nominal owners are not the
real owners, but it may be permitted to differ from
his Grace on his views as to the proceedings of
mortgagees.

It is unfortunate for the cause of which the Noble
Duke is the champion, that the field-day of Tuesday
night did not come off previous to the division on Lord
STANLEY'S amendment against the second reading of
the Bill for the repeal of the Navigation Laws. Who
can tell but that the thunder from the coronet
might have produced lightning from the mitres,
for his Grace of RICHMOND positively threatens no-
thing less than a combination, if not a conspiracy,
of the agricultural interest to destroy the Church,
or at least to deprive it of its revenues, which is very
similar to destruction. In this sacrilegious work his
Grace calculates on an accession of strength from the
peaceful members of the Society of Friends, and from
all who " hate the Church of England."
The Ilouse of Lords is, perhaps, the last place
where we might expect to hear that sacrilege was
publicly held forth and cheered, but the following is
extracted from the report of the speech of his Grace
Of RICHMOND :

"If the reasonable demands of the farmers were not
complied with, they would petition and would combine
to get rid of the tithes, and if they did that they would
be joined by all the Brights, and men who hated the
Church of .Engiand.—(llear, hear.)"

This conspiracy or combination for the destruction
of the Church by depriving her of her revenues is not
to be the work of disaffected, working manufacturers,
but of the farmers of England headed by the aristo•
cracy. His Grace prefaced his statements of what
the object to be combined for was by explaining who
were the parties to combine :
These farmers lived in various parts of the country;
they had not been in the habit of combining together;
they had over been loyal men, and ready to aid in carry-
ing out the laws of the land at all times. But now they
said—and he said so too, in that House—that they were
injured."
The leaders of the combined forces who are to
attack the altar, if not the throne, are already chosen
or self-appointed, and our readers will be surprised to
learn that one of them is that very religious and
Protestant Peer, the Earl of WlNcrimsnA, who, as the
next speaker, followed up the intimation of the Duke
of RICHMOND by declaring that—
" At whatever risk to himself, his part was taken; and,
by the God in whose presence he stood, if the people of
Ergland wanted an honest though a feeble leader, in him
they should find one. He was sure they would unite as
one man to oppose unjust legislation."
It will be observed that his Lordship founds his
pretensions to leadership on two qualfications, honesty
and feebleness. It is not for us to decide which of the
two is most pre-eminent in his Lordship ; on this
point there may be difference of opinion, but those
who are inclined to doubt whether he possesses both,
will surely give him credit for the possession of one
of the two qualifications.
It would appear that this conspiracy or combina-
tion has not merely its general or staff officers in the
House of Lords, but its sergeants and corporals in
the provinces; and it is not difficult to trace a con-
nexion between the speeches and the acts of the two.
At the commencement of his speech the Earl of
lATINcumsEA referred to his connexion with the pro-
vinces and " that great body of respectable yeomanry
in the county in which he was born." It happens
that one of the baronial mansions of his Lordship,
called Burley-on-the-Hill, is situate near to Oakham,
in the county of Rutland, and as lately as last week
a public manifest() was issued in the local newspapers,