The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-28 00:00:00

FRENCH PAPERS.

( From the E toile, dated Saturday.)
PA 1113, DEC. 24.
The Chamber of 'Peers had to nominate the
Members of the Bureau and the Commission for
the Address. We understand that -there were
167 votes ; majority 84.
The minority comprised, among others, MM. de Lally, Arch-
bishop of Paris, Viscount de Chateaubriand, Count Mole, and
Baron Pasquier. The minority war from 50 to 81 votes. M.
tie Cliateaubriand had 61 votes. The majority; howeve?, nerd"
Dated the Duke Mathieu Montmorency, the- Duke de Brissac,
Viscount Ronald, the Marquis de Pastoret, and the Duke de
Calor,. These five members had the majority, which was from
91 to 107. The Duke de Montmorency had 103 votes. •

The Second Cliamhergof the States General of
the Netherlands was occupied, in its sittings of
the 18th, with the discussion of a projei of law
co►ttaiuing provisions for the more efficacious re•
pre!;siott of the slave trade.
FRENCH FUNDS.—PARIS, Th:c. 24.—Five per Cents.
opened at 10If. 71c.; declined to 1011. 70c. ; and at half-paat
three were 1011. 75e. for the end of the month.—Neapolitan,
VW. —.Spanish Bond', no quotation.

NAPLES, Nov. 80.

FzILDINAND I. by the grace of God, King of the Two Sici-
lies, of Jerusalem, &c. Desiring to establish a due equilibrium
between the receipt and expenditure of the Treasury of our do-
minions beyond the Strait, for the year 1825, without burden-
ing dur beloved subjects with new taxes, on the proposal of our
Seeretoty of State, Minister of Finance,ly the advice of our
Ccuncil of State, we have resolved to decree,.and decree--

1. From the Ist January next the Exchequer of our domi-
nions. beyond the Strait shall retain 10 per cent. of the follow.
ing payments :—On the salaries of the officers of the Royal
flousehold, of the Councillors, Ministers, and' Secretaries of
State, Officers of the Foreign Departmenti and of all officers of
whatever order or rank they he ; on pensions, subsidies, alms,
and, in short, on payments of every kind not below specified.
2. Besides the national consolidated debt which, by the sa-
credness of its institution, cannot be subject to any tax or de-
duction, and besides the onds in pounds sterling of the last
loan, which have been assimilated with the public debt, the
following are exempt from the operation of the Ist Article—
the daily pay of the troops and of the seamen of our navy, the
ftinds of the Caine d'Apioninement ; the annuities for credits
on our treasury payments tbr articles furnished and for labour ;
and those which result from contracts or agreements with or
without Interest.
3. Our Treasurer shall keep 'a separate account of the sums
proceeding from the said deductions, as well those which are
,directly retained by the Treasury itself on the disbursements
mentioned in the Ist. Article, for which it is liable, as all
the sums which shall be paid by the other Offices on the same
account.

4. All our hlinisters Secretaries of State are charged with the
.czectition of the present Decree.
Naples, 6th Oct. 11324.
(Signed)
. De Medici, Minister of Finance.
De Medici, President 0 the Council of Ministers.
(From the Courier Francais.)

FERDINAND.

FRANKFORT, DEC. 20.
The Advocates of this town have. prosented.a
-petition to the Senate, praying that the-Jews
may be excluded from their body, and for the
future prevented from pleading for any but
.themselves. The Senate has rejected this
ral request, declaring that the profession of an
_Advocate was open to any nue -who might choose
-to embrace it ; but ,the Senate adheres to. the
ancient laws, which hinders the Jews from act.
-ing AS Notaries or Proctors ; us those professions
ere, it is said, brunches of the Sovereign malt°.
tity.

( From Me Conaitutiounel of Saturday. )
M.tottin, DEC. 0.
The expedition so long preparing fur the Pa-
. citic Ocean, quitted Ferrol on the 7th of this
• month ; it consists of a frigate and two corvettes,
having on board upwards of two thousand
ti seen. In the present state of the Peninsula,
-It is the greatest effort that can be expected.

TRADE WITH THE Rio DE LA 'PLATA.--The
last mail from Buenos Ayres has brought a copy
-.of a Report, drawn up by a Committee of British
Merchants, on the past and present state of the
trade with the Rio de la Plata, which supplies
some commercial information of a highly interest.
lug nature. The improvement of the trade of
Buenos Ayres, since its separation from Spain,
' has been very remarkable, and furnishes a strong
proof of the advantages .gained by that country
in establishing its Independence. .1n -the year
° 1700, the exports from Cadiz to Buenos Ayres
amounted to '2,800,000 dollars, and the Mi..
ports to Cadiz front Buenos Ayres to '6,000,000
dollars, -which, as -Spain possessed an entire
monopoly, may he •stated 'as the whole • trade
of that :Viceroyalty. In the year,lB2‘2, accord-
ing to the returns of the Custom house of Buenos
Ayres, the imports are estiMated at 11,000,000
dollars, of which nearly one half were received
from Great Britain direct. In the same year the
exports from Buenos Ayres are estimated at
N 7.00,000 dollars. This difference in the amount
of the imports and exports. from that country is
explained by the circutimtance, that the actual
rquatktities have always exceeded these returns,
us they have at all tiMes'been short manifested
in order to save dutieti. In the amount of spe-
cie in particular said to be exported, no reliance
is to be placed-on these returns, as the article
his sometimes been :wholly prohibited, and
was then smuggled off. .revenue of
Buenos Ayres in • 1522 is stated at -1,900,000
dollars, and which is said to be raised on a scale
of duties. comparatively moderate. The system of
high duties was wisely abandoned by the Govern-
ment on account of the temptation it created' to
smuggling. The increase in the trade of Buenos
Ayres will appear far mare striking when it
is stated, that under that name was returned to
the Spanish GOvernment the whole trade with
Paraguay and Upper' Peru, which is now, from
• political causes, wholly suspended. When those
causes cease to operate, ,which the progress of
- 'st.vents appears to indicate will very shortly happen,
• the returns must- inevitably become fur greater.
It is estimated 'by -the Committee, that, while
the colenial system,existed,all manufactured and
other Kerniseanygoods. sold for three titnes.their
presont prices., while 41se produce of the.conntry
was givett oxchange: for fourth :..part. of what
is now paid fur it.. The: Trecediug appear to us
the ,most striking facts ail general nature coin.-
, prised ht this report) of which our limits will not
-,,pertilit us to. give a more extended notice ; but
the whole of the details possess considerable in-
terest for persons engaged in commerce -with that
pet of the rld.—(rimet.)

Tlw CHURCH DEPP:NDED against the CALUMNIES
of the " gToILE," FRENCH PAPER.

It has always been a complaint on the part
of Protestants, that theirtr 4 has been laid open to the,
attacks of its enemies b bigotry which has been too
often betrayed on tl pafbf its friends:7 Not only infidels,
but even those who in4esii to bethristiaus, and are as blindly

superstitious as any sect among us,—the Papists--venture to
strike our Church through thFinperstition Or one of the sects
the most predominant in this country, which, from the spirit of
toleration, naturally exposes itself the morel() such: divisions.
Because - the Methodists are bigots enough to resolve' every
thing into mystery; and from their ignorance are unable to

explain texts which have long Ago shone with all the fulness
of light to the learned in most countries, our country is to
suffer tinder the degrading 'censure of L'Etolk, as the most
superstitious and ignorant in matters of religion of any
country in the world. " From the report of travellers" (says
this I'aper) " who have gone over to England imbued with
the prejudices of philosophism, we might imagine the English
were a very religious people, but since the learned of all .na-
tions have visited that country, we find that the bulk of the
people who arc in easy circumstances, and all the lbwer
classes are in a most pitiable state with regard to religion."
And to What does this Paper ascribe this wretched state of us
Protestants ? Forsooth, to the opinions which we so fondly
entertain, and which We trust will never be forsaken, that all our
" religion is to be found in the Bible, which is got by heart
in general by the common people, who yet cannot understand
one single v.erse." To confirm which, a fact is quoted, which
is said to have happened some years ago in Ireland, from the
testimony of two or' duce Catholics who met some Protestants at
the condemned room in which were some criminals sentenced to
be executed the next day. A Methodist Minister, well known
for his visits on these occasions, was haranguing one of the
robbers upon the text where the promise is made to one of the
malefactors on the Cross, which seemed to make a great

pression upon the robber, and to inspire him with hope
and confidence in the same promise, till at last he began to
think of his creed, which says his Saviour descended into Hell,
and asked the Minister how he could reconcile that descent with
the promise that he should 'on that day be with him in Pa-
radise, as he was not to enter himself till after his Re-
surrection. Upon which, the Minister who had been
brought up in the conceit that to read the Bible was
enough, and had never examined Into its real sense, did
not even attempt to answer him; but after thinking for
some time, pronounced it to be one of the mysteries which were
never meant to be understood. " Such," says this paper, "is
the consequence of reading the Bible without a commentary."
But hart the Etoile yet to learn from the wise and learned Mis-
sionaries whom it has sent to procure all the information
possible about our Church, and to feel the religious pulse of the
nation at large, that its members are in general very hostile to
the dissemination of the Bible without a commentary; and is
it possible even for Frenchmen who have not visited England,
and who pretend to Some interest in its religious state to be igno-
rant of this fact, which has been so often and so Strongly urged
against a leading sect among us, to which I have alluded, and
to which this mystifying Minister is said to belong? The
Church it not to he judged by the errors of the Sectarians, and
much less to• be abused for that particular error which it has
taken so much pains for several years to confute and to
repress. As well might you take its sentiments from thegitithr
who has lately shone through a glass darkly in our Courts
of Justice, and listen to the • expounding of this transpar-
ent preacher, who says with a simplicity characteristic of
his sect, and with a spirit so peculiar to these hraven-Goin Evan-
geficair, " I sometimes preaches to every benighted neighbour-
hood the gospel of our Lord, but I never preaches it but when
I am not employed ,"—and this employment is in Mending glass-
windows. So brilliant is his career, and so useful in his gene:.
ration, that when he is not engaged in furnishing the outward
light he occupies himself with as freely imparting, as it is to
him imparted, the inward light.

.Froarsuelt lights as these, the critics of France judge of the
whole English nation, by means of their learned emissaries,
Whom they have sent to gather all the information possible, as
to our religious state. Just as the noted PIGLET picked up
his knowledge and vented forth his spleen in scandalous anec-
dotes of our cannibalism,' delight in Uxoricide, or in the daily
murder of wives who were not already murdered by drinking
brandy, when they retired from themen. If they had enquired
a step further, and not been glad to seize idle stories and calum-
'nious reports,—never too extravagant to be swallowed by a set of
men who arc ready to helieveany thing against us as Protestants,
and as Britons,—they would have learnt the real truth, that
though there are unhappily to be found some few of these Evan-
gelicals and Alystifiers even in our Church, who may obtrude
these tenets, as they delight to do on all occasions, upon strangers
as well as natives, and are at the same time ever identifying them-
selves with the true Church, yet if they would not judge of the
whole by these partial representations, or of the body by such
excrescencies, I do not hesitate to affirm, what even they them-
selves, if they will throw away their Papistical spectacles,
would hu ready to acknowledge, that they have been mistaken
in The unqualified Censure which they have thrown upon that
body, and that there is not (always save and except themselves)
in Christendom any religious community which less. deserves
animadversions of any kind. The more deeply its spirit is ex-
plored, the more sensible will they become that there is not
body in the world which has emitted so much real light, whe-
ther from public or private character, from the pulpit or the
press, •in theory or m practice, than the Reformed Church of
England ever since the Rethrmation, and that the country it.
self has enjoyed the benefit of that light in the same propor-
tion. Nor is it fair or reasonable to judge of its religious spirit,
as the French Critics pretend, by an Evangelical Minister in
Ireland, or any of the same stamp whom we may meet' with
here, who, whatever they may profess, do not really belong to
our Church ; and much less, by the miserable victims to a
wild fanaticism, a set of Ranters, and Hearers, and Pilgrims,
or the followers of Johanna Southcote, who st;11 believe in her
prophesy, that she should never die though it has been so com-
pletely baffled by her .death. One of them declares he has
I heard her voice, who came from heaven in Purpose to com-
mand them to wear their beards ; and therefore,. rim several
weeks past they have remained .unshorn. According to his
own statement, he had a colloquy
with the Supreme Being,
and had been commanded to allow his beard to grow in inn-
tation of the Apostles, and now on Sundays a flock of these
fanatics, like so many he-goats, may be seen going to and from
their place of worship ; and because there may pe some few
such wretched Dotards and Long-beards to be found, who
seem to wish to restore one part of the Jewish costume, they
are forsooth to be presented to the French as accurate speci-
mens of the whole, nation—
" Credat Judens APella"
Non iniberbis A polio—
who would ,pot: mg, of the piety which Prevails in a Chris-
tian Community by a fanatical faction of toptbards, any more
than of the whole Christian Body throughout the world by
his
Holiness's toe.

At the sound of this so often saluted Member of Infallibi-
lity, 1 would offer in the curious in etymology an otf-liand by-
pothesis which perhaps may throw a light upon the subject
with other us learned_and ingenious commentaries, the more it
drivesit into the shade. To relieve a dull controversy whicil I
may perhaps resume at somejuture opportunity, I. should be
glad If these searchers after the truth can assign a better etymo.
logy than the one which I propose.
May not the great Primate of the world, old and now, trace
his holy pedigree to a " shadowy footed people, the We-
podcs, in Libya", who arc said, to be provided by nature with
feet of such circumference us tAll shade the rest of their persona
and others around them, when in a recumbent posture, from
the heat of -the sun. as his Holines may hits salue said. to
overshadow ail people.who. once hOnoures d with ta-
tion, may ever after repose in the shade of lib; authority—
Zr pate Hercukni.