The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-04 00:00:00

and we know that men whose incomes ought to be
fixed and fully adequate to their support--including
clergymen of reputation—enter into the wildest spe-
culations, wholly ignorant of business, and become
partners with profligate schemers and needy adven-
turers, for the purpose of deriving profits, the large-
ness of which is wholly incompatible with safety, pru-
dence, or honesty. City capitalists have of late years be-
come acquainted with the paper, as it is technically
termed, of persons whose names ought to be known in
that quarter of London by report only; men of family,
rank, and title, have lent their names to bubble com-
panies and schemes, for the sake of more easily and pro-
fitably dealing in shares and scrip, and for the fees of
directors' attendances; and there is no speculation, how-
ever absurd, that has not found support from those who
wish to make unreasonable profit of their remaining
capital, or to support those appearances which their in-
comes have long ceased to warrant.
Poverty is a disease almost universally prevalent even
in the higher classes ; yet families immersed in society
continue to waste their substance in its follies and ex-
cesses ; and men of the world will sacrifice their honesty
sooner than lay down their carriages, or cease to give
extravagant entertainments, and, rather than relinquish
their conventional importance, will resort to borrowing
until they are compelled to expatriate themselves, and
uselessly or wickedly fret the remainder of their lives in
second-rate continental capitals, or gambling or disre-
putable watering-places. Land, or, what amounts to
nearly the same thing as possession, power over land, is
rapidly passing into the hands of millionaires, and the
influence formerly possessed by an hereditary aristo-
cracy, full of kindly feelings to the poor, is silently as-
signed to the mere owners of money.
This is not an inaccurate picture of the legal
extortioners. They cannot keep together what
they exact. A curse follows their plunder,
and in starving the people they have impove-
rished themselves. Like other dishonest per-
sons they squander more than they steal; and
their exertions only encourage extravagance, and
add to their excesses and their difficulties.
Turning from the Herald to the Post, we
find the great champion of the Church yes-.
terday sanctioning this statement:—
Men talk of the exaggerated wealth of the Church in
England. Their allegations are false, and we fear it
must be added, wilfully and knowingly false ; but were
they to the letter true, would tens of millions annually
be too dear a price to pay for such a blessing as this is ?
At the investigation into Mr. CAVE'S affairs,
however, Sir C. WILLIAMS said—" I observe
that 121,0001. was advanced by a very mo-
derate number of the clergy," to which the
bankrupt assented. That a very moderate
number of the clergy have a sum of 121,000/.
to embark in mining speculations, in order to get
ten per cent. on the advance, shows anything but
poverty in the priesthood, whatever it may indi-
cate in the Church, a term which is held to in-
clude the shorn flock as well as the shearing
pastor. Not only are the priesthood rich, but
they are animated with the spirit of cupidity.
They are led away, as the Herald says, by the
unlawful desire of lucre to forget the sacred
duties of their holy calling. They set about
getting money cunningly, like usurers. One of
theta whispered to another, " CAVE is a clever
fellow, he will give you ten per cent. for your
money ;" and to get the ten per cent. they con-
fided in CAVE, and lost 121,0001. The clergy and
the landlords are the guides of society, they set
the fashion in morals as well as in manners and
dress ; and when we find cupidity and extrava-
gance stimulating them and involving them in
difficulties, how can we be surprised that men of
a lower rank follow their example ? "It is aw-
ful to think," said Sir C. \VILLIaMs, " how so
many persons of education, rank, and station in
society, could have been deluded, by their own
infatuation alonc, of the enormous sum of
365,0001."
Mr. CaVE's own words, as they were given in
The Sun yesterday, are an illustration of the
conduct of the respectable classes :
" I was," said Mr. Cave, "for many years in the
War-office at a good salary ; and about the year 1829
or 1830 I first commenced my view of entering into
mining speculations, and Lad property to begin with
to the amount of 12,0001. or 13,0001., partly in cash
and partly in an estate mortgaged to a Mr. Al'llonnel
for about 20,0001. I never put out any flaming pro-
spectuses nor seductive advertisements to induce any
party whatsoever to join me, nor did I ever ask any one
to join me who actually did so. On the contrary, all
those who did join me were actually volunteers.' I col-
lected 300,0001. in subscriptions in the course of five or
six years, and many persons, from whom I now hold
letters in my hand, pressed me to allow them to subscribe
to the speculation."
He was not contented, it appears, with his
good salary, hut lie rushed into mining specula-
tions, as other gentlemen, with good salaries,
rush into stock speculations ; and, less unfortu-
nate than others, he appears only in the Bank-
rupts' Court, while they will be summoned to
the bar of the Old Bailey. These are specimens
of the respectable classes, to whom alone the
Legislature will confide legislative or electoral
power, and for whose especial advantage all the
institutions of society are framed. When such
is their private character, and such are their
pursuits, can it be surprising that legislation
partakes largely of their rapacity and disho-
nesty ? The stream cannot rise higher than its
source, and neither can the Legislature be more
pure than the noblemen, squires, clergymen, and
middle classes who compose it, or are instru-
mental in forming it.

Liverpool has long been a Tory town, and re-
turns two Tory Members to Parliament. It is
both fanatical and corrupt. In it Mr. M'NEILE
and Tory gold have paramount influence. We
see less cause, therefore, for surprise than regret
at the municipal elections at Liverpool having
turned out favourable to the Tories, though it
makes a glorious boast for the Ministerial Jour-
nals. In other municipalities the Tories lose.
When the Whigs were in power, the Tory Jour-
nals continually pointed out the influence of the
Government in the municipal elections, as suffi-
cient to explain the defeat of the Tories. Now
that they have got that influence on their side,
they say nothing of it ; but it has not sufficed to
save them in several places from being disgrace-
fully routed. We cannot allow them to forget
that all the influence of the Government, which
is considerable, in all the towns of the empire,
though it has served them at Liverpool, where
the dependents of Government are numerous,
has not served them at Canterbury, Nottingham,
Kendal, Manchester, Birmingham, &c., &c.

In the same page, and almost the same co-
lumn, in which the Tory triumph at the muni-
cipal elections was most loudly boasted of, there
was a deal of sorrow and indignation that Mr.
O'CONNELL was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin.
It was described as nearly the grossest insult
that could be offered to the Protestants of Ire-
land, and indeed to the Protestants of the em-
pire, including the women of England. Dublin
at present returns two Orangemen to Parlia-
liament, and it cannot he said that Mr. O'CoN-
NELL'S election confirms the opinion practically
expressed by the election of Messrs. WEST and
GROGAN. For our parts, we are quite ready
to admit that Liberal opinions are not so preva-
lent as we would wish them ; at the same time,
they are rapidly spreading, and penetrating very
deeply. Though the Tories may " regulate their
sentiments" by an implicit faith in some oracu-
lar Standard, the Liberals, from their opinions
being new, necessarily form them " by inquiry
and conviction ;" and everywhere earnest opi-
nions, hostile to the Tory policy, are the result
of inquiry. Knowing such opinions to be just,
we have not the smallest doubt that they will
ultimately triumph, whatever may be the fate of
the Liverpool municipal election.

It appears a considerable quantity of gun-
powder is kept in the Tower, and we learn trotn
the late disaster, that sufficient precautions are
not taken in that fortress to guard against acci-
dent. Ladies, we are told, assisted with their own
fair hands to roll the barrels of powder into the
moat. If the powder were to explode, it would
cause immense mischief. The neighbourhood
round the Tower is densely peopled, and the
Thames abreast of it, and immediately above and
below it, is generally densely crowded with ship-
ping. The Tower itself, in fact, is a crowded
town, a large part of which is closely packed
with habitations. Phips, people, houses, would
be destroyed to a great extent were the Tower
magazine to explode.
Besides the objections mentioned by a Morning
Contemporary to having the national records
placed over a magazine, we may say that it is
very unusual to have a mass o icona .ustibles col-