The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-25 00:00:00

Here we have 5,000/. set apart for a certain amount
of clerical work. This work is actually performed
for 2481.—and how ? The dignified (I ) clergy
who bold these benefices—too dignified to preach
the Gospel of CHRIST propriis personis—employ
journeymen, at the lowest wages that can keep soul
and body together, to do the laborious part of the
business, while all that they themselves condescend
to do is to pocket the 5,0001. With the evidence
before the world of such superfluity, what must be
the impudence that can ask for a grant of the pub-
lic money, to pamper the grossness of an overfed
corporation !

It must be obvious to every person that just now
the clerical body and their friends are making pro-
digious exertions. They are calling into operation
ail the instruments they can command. To see
one large body of men animated by such a deter-
mined ambition to rule and control the mind of the
community, and employing all sorts of arts to at-
tain their ends, would be a fearful thing, were the
success likely to be equal to the determination.
One" of these men is to be planted, according to the
system now partially in operation, and which the
Church Extensionists are to make complete, in every
little district and amongst every few persons. All these
separate clergymen are expected to teach the same
or similar doctrines, and all are to aim at control-
ling the mind of the society. They are to have all
education placed in their hands. None of the re-
lations of life can be formed or sanctioned but by
their blessing. To the sick they alone are to be
the dispensers of hope ; and to the dying they alone
are to be the messengers of peace and comfort.
Ambassadors of Heaven—Ministers of GOD—are
the astounding titles they lay claim to. " Super-
natural terror," which they fashion the mind to
feel, is their means, and " superstitous slavery" in
the people their end.
The admirable philosophy of BACON and
LocKE, coincident in fact if not in expression,
teaches us to look for the correction of
all our thoughts to the material world. Our ima-
ginings are brought to it as a test, and what ex-
perience does not confirm is rejected as false. Facts
common to all, or what all may be conversant with,
is, according to these great men, the ultimate test
of truth. On their system our thoughts, when
most correct and most profound, are only the copies
or reflection of external nature, on which and by
which the mind is continually moulded. Such is
the main principle of all the philosophy of Eng-
land, since the days of Lord VERULAM.
But the order of men whose wide-grasping am-
bition we have adverted to, and whose present ac-
tivity fills the land with their deeds, labour conti-
nually to thwart and oppose this philosophy, and
substitute for it supernatural terror—a terror of
what never can be brought to the test of the
seises—as the means of fornimg the mind.
From their opposition to the course of na-
ture, in spite of their present activity, we
look for their defeat. We already see symptoms
of their decided failure. They have no one infalli-
ble standard to walk by, and their present activity,
rousing into exertion slumbering genius, and kindling
the fires of latent individual ambition, will excite so
much friction that they will destroy each other.
Dr. CHALMERS is for abstracting the Church
wholly from the control of the State ; Mr.
M‘NEILE thinks the Bishops should be openly
:appointed by the Crown. Dr. CHALMERS would
have the ecclesiastical authority wholly indepen-
dent of the State ; Mr. M'NEILE warns the State
to dread ecclesiastical usurpation, and recommends
restraints and restrictions to keep down fanaticism
and preserve the liberty of the subject. When we
find the priests, though all alike grasping, inculcating,'
such contradictory doctrines, we rejoice in their acti-il
vity. Go on, we say, gentlemen ; give your annual!
lectures, hold your monthly meetings, write your
Journals, get hold of the Times and other mis-
chievous Newspapers, stir up the community with
your eloquence ; the more you exert yourselves the,
more you will rub against tach other, and the
sooner will you kindle a fire that will consume you•
all. If we did not anticipate this as the natural'
result, we should behold the great activity now dis-
played by the priests and their party, and their vast
ambition, with dismay.

We have given in another part cf the Paper
the petition of the London Grand Junction
Railway Company relative to the advan-
tages to be afforded by that line, when
completed, to the manufacturing districts of the
North of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the
heart of the metropolis, and recommend it to public
notice. To London, and also to the country, it
would be of great advantage, as letters and papers
might be put into the Post-office here fully half an
hour later than at present, if the proposed plan were
carried into effect.

The doubts entertained on Sunday in Paris respecting
the stability of the new Cabinet, had assumed on Mon.
day the semblance of a reality. Oa Sunday night the
Royalists held a meeting, and came to an agreement,
but whether to support or oppose 1111EAS was kept a
profound secret. On Monday night the Mole section,
or " 221," were to meet, and decide upon their course
3f action. It was understood that a Ministry consist-
ing of SOULT, MOLE, DUCIIATEL, PASSY, &C., was
actually in the course of formation, and that the KING
had offered to support it with all the influence of the
Palace. The moment which will decide the political
fate of TRIERS is at hand. It is by such junctures
that the highest order of political genius is determined.
The news from Africa ►s far from being encouraging.
A summary of it is subjoined.

The Semaphore of- Marseilles gives the following
statement of the naval force of France in the Mediter-
ranean :

Squadron of the Levant—The Montebello, of 120
guns, Rear-Admiral La Susse ; the Jena, of 90, Rear
Admiral Lalonde ; the Suffren, of 90 ; the Diadems, of
86; the Santi Petri, of 86; the Neptune, of 86; the
Jupiter, of 86 ; the Trident, of 80 ; and the Alger, of 80.
The corvettes—Brillante, of 28, and Diligente, of 18.
The brigs—Bougainville, of 10; and Argus, of 10. The
schooner Mesange, of 6. The steamers—Lavoisier, of
220 horse-power; and Veloce, of the same.
On the Coast of Africa—The brigs Dragon, of 18;
Euryale, of 16 ; Volage, of 10 ; and Liamone, of 4 ; the
Emulation tender, the xebecks, Boberoch, and Maza-
fran ; the balancelles Ssybouse, Tafna, Rachgoun and
Celembe ; the transport corvettes, Tarn, Agatha, and
Menagere ; the mail steamers Sphinx, Crocodile, Fulton,
ofo f!
110
Chimere, Styx, Vautour, Phare, Tartare, Etna, Cecyte,
Phaeton, Tonnerre, Ramier, Euphrates, Castor, Gron-
deur, Pepin, and Acheron.
Onguns
; the of
2SO ; paisno—rpTrihsee, corvettesof
ffo; F ioEohgele,
Cigogne, of 10 ; Dupetit Thouars, of 10 ; the lighter
Me 1 e Coastagre, of
Lamproie.
On the Coast of Italy—The brig Grenadier.
Squadron of Reserve in Toulon.—The Ocean, of 120
guns, Vice-Admiral Rosamel , the Hercule, of 100 guns;
the Merengo, of 80 guns; the Triton, of 80 guns ; and the
Genereux, of 80 guns.
In the Roads of Toulon, without any destination.—The
frigates Belle Poule, of 60, and Amazon, of 52 ; the cor-
vette Bergere, of 20 ; the brigs Palinure, of 20, the
oCfomote, of 10; the schooners Etoile, of 6, and Legere,
port 2p r;ce
opt
rhaverei
ntetgue tstf eo
mrr
saFeruanr.elt
a;Tn
dthl icEe s xie.eti).l3si
ce kac
pdCi
ohanas,mt
oe Chamois,
steamer
rtgh
cue
ne
sr b; e trans-trhe eSoiiverain, of 120 • and the Vale de Marseilles of 80.
Total-17 sail of the line two frigates, four corvettes, 17
brigs or schooners, eight sMall7rrs V
corvettes
; jel'isaell, seven77,if.transport
OriendQrs, 22 steamers;