The Sun.
London, England, 1823-03-22 00:00:00

THE RIGIIT HON. GEORGE CANNING.

Greeks. Nihitaf had joined Odysseus, and
waited the force under Bozzari, to try a coup dc
main against Larissa or Salonica. The army of
the three Chiefs united would amount to
55,000 men. The Greeks were' flushed with
success and animated by the highest enthusiasm.
The capture of Patras and Corinth are most
important, and will paralyze the hopes of the
Moslems. Patras is a sea-port of considerable
extent and trade in the Morea. One-third
of the inhabitants are 'Jews, It, has a consi-
durable trade in silk, leather, honey, and other
articles. It is seated on the declivity of a
mountain, near the entrance of the Gulph of
Lepanto, fourteen miles south-west of the latter.
Corinth, once so celebrated, and still distin-
guished by the ruins of splendid temples and
other remains of former magnificence, is now
greatly decayed ; the inhabitants scarcely amount
to two thousand. Such is Turkish tyranny ! It
lies on the Isthmus into the Morea, and is the seat
of an Archbishop's see. It was once rich from
commerce, and its harbours in the Gulfs of Le.
panto and Engia. Its architects, sculptors, and
painters, were distinguished when Greece existed
as a nation. It was for some time in the power
of the Venetians, but was taken by the barbarous
Turks in 1'715; it, lies sixty miles from Athens.
Every friend to humanity, every lover of liberty,
must rejoice in these great successes of the Greeks,
by which, unaided and alone, this. long-suffering
people are gradually rescuing themselves and
their nation from the bloody fangs of their rob-
' less oppressors, and amid unheard-of difficulties,
, by their courage and perseverance starting into
life and freedom again. Should Greece triumph
in the East, and Spain in Western Europe, what
a glorious spectacle will it not be for an admiring
I world !

The Maundy moneys—viz. 4d., 3d , 2d., and
in a new silver coinage of the present year,
were issued from the Royal Mint on Thursday,
preparatory to the usual distribution of his
MAJESTY'S alms, on the 27th instant, at White-
hall Chapel, under the orders of the Lord High
and Sub-Almoner. We understand that the
dies have 'been prepared for this coinage, and that
the pieces are particularly beautiful.
Shell fish it now arriving, regularly at the
Btoomielaw. Yesterday oysters were:selling at
from 9„s. to 3s. a hundred ; and calebdons %4 ere
bringing I.od. and muscles Is. a peck.—(G/us-
gow (shroicle.)
A remarkable instance of tenacity: of life in a
cat occurred recently in this town (Bury). One
of these animals being caught 'by the leg in a
trap, in the malting of Mr. Braddock, It dragged
it into a hole in the building., The trap was
missed, and all search proved vain at the time ;
but accident led to its discovery .15 days after,
and the poor creature was still alive, though it
could have had no food of any kind during the
whole period. —( Bury Paper,)

( Continued from THE Suw of Thursday, Feb. 27.)
While the het state of , the lower orders is becoming worse
than the first, the higher classes, in whom party zeal is stronger
than religious principle, either remain sullenly in the profession
of their hereditary faith, or fly off into infidelity. They make
it a point of hotour not to desert whatthey consider as' a perse-
cuted religion. - This consideration alone is sufficient to make
them overlook the vulgarity and the ignorance of their Priests ;
and many willingly, and with great good. humour, endure the
raillery which a nominal subjection to those blind guides is sure
to turn,ivon them ; although they themselves are secretly con-
vineed of the emptiness and absurdity of their pretensions.
It is a great misfortune that there should exist any cause to
prevent this talented and respectable body of men from giving
a candid examination to the grounds upon which the Reformed
Church, as established by law, thought it necessary to separate
from the Romisli Communion. But, unfortunately, the purest
specimens of its spirit and character are not presented to them
In the persons of those who, no doubt, imagine that they are
most efficiently supporting its interests by indulging in vio-
lent and virulent abuse of the Papists. And unless where the
[ circumstanoes of the individual are peculiarly favourable, and
theopathy unusually strong, it is not tribe expected that he
should very cordially embrace a system of belief against the
professors of which he has been provdked to enter into deep
And bitter political prejudices. The knows them but as a party
who'have ever been most violent in their opposition to his re-,
ligious liberty. And the feelings to- which this consideration
must naturally give rise are adverse to that calm and impartial
examination of controverted points of doctrine to which our
establishment may be justly proud of .owing her most respect-
able members.
Now, let the invidious distinction created by the penal laws
be removed ; let the caste by which theynre prevented from am-
algamating freely with the rest of the community be done away;
let them be put upon the same footing with the other sectaries ;
let there be no periodical recurrence to those party feuds which
give rise to such deadly animosities, . and you will have
put them into a condition in which a fair and impartial examie
nation of the principle 3 of your religion may be expected.--,
They can then undertake it without either it prejudice against
you, or a suspicion of themselves. By acting thus you
will be dissolving the
,political confederacy which is the
strongest cement of their Religious. Union r—yoir wilt be.
removing that external' compression by which, and not by any
internal cohesion,' they are at present held!togethee.. And after
a reasonable lapse of time, when party- spirit shall have in some
measure subsided, it will require no extraordinary' effort either
of zeal or ability on the part of our clergy, to gain more pro.,
selytes to the establishment,, than can ever be expected while
our Roman Catholics fellow-subjects are condemned to live in a
fever of discontent, and compelled to wince under a galling
sense of their political inferiority.
There is one topic upon Which the excluaioilits ate very Hind
of enlarging, and that too in a manner that does not betray any
very profound acquaintance with human nature. They refer
to the period when the penal code was in full vigour ;. and con-
trast, with astonishment, the passive and tranquil endurance of
the then Roman Catholics, when there was so much to corn- I
plain of, with the impatience and irritation atpresent manifest-.
ed, when there is so little. They then ingeniously affect to trace
the progress of discontent, as keeping pece with the progress of
concession; and-express their apprehensions, that,if things are to
go on at this rate, so far from conciliating or satistYing that body
by the rent oval of the remainin g diiitabill ties, their clamour and vie.;
lance will then be greatest when there remains no more to be con-
ceded, Now is it, reallyi filly thing extraordinary that when.
the Roman Catholics were literally but " hewers of wood and
drawers of water," their spirit should, have- beenemore broken
to servitude, than now that they are happily relieved from the
'ignoming and oppression which then pressed so heavily upon
them ? Does such a fact present any thing anamolous or re-
markable in the history of the human mind ?' That in propor-
tion as men have felt the sweets of liberty,. and the advantages
of equitable government, they should be depirious of enjoying
them in every degree that is consistent with the well-being 'of
'the Constitution ? The wonder would be if it were otherwise :
if, after having got free from the entauglenents which kept
them as it were, at the bottom of the community, they did not
make some sensible resistenee to every obstruction that would
prevent them front attaining their natural level in the empire.
'—lt is true that they have been already relieved from by fat She
heavieet atilt) penal enactments. The right of acquiring pro.,
perty, and' the privilee of the elective franchise have cen-
tered upon them both personal and - political considera-
tion. But in proportion as they have been protected from
Injury, and raised in station and charadter precisely in the
proportion is it both natural and becoming that they should'
feel resentful for' insult and indignity. And this feeling
so far from indicating a spirit of disaffection . to the Govern-
ment, is perfecely inseparable from a consciousness of their
wealth, their loyalty, and their importance.
I am here reminded of a story which I somewhere heard of
a gentleman who returned to this country with a black servant,
after having amassed a large fortune in India. The negro,
" whose chains fell from around him" the instant he breathed
in a land of liberty, and whose desires and, capacity seemed to
expand with the improvement in his condition, embarked in
trade, and was indefatigable in his calling, -until he realized a
comfortable independence. But his old master could not so
easily forget to' be a tyrant, as he forgot to be a slave. Meet-
ing with him one (ley, he -addressed h
am with all thehaughti-
nese of command, which, when the onest African resented,
What," said he, "is this your gratitude to Government for
the abolition of the slave trade ! Time was when you would
humbly perform the most menial. 'offices ; and take the dis-
cipline of the horse-whip, if deserved, without even daring
to murmur. Now you have the assurance to hold up your
head like one of us, and- to think yourself of as much
importance as a natural-born subject. But I hope Govern-
ment will take warning in time, and provide before it is too
late, against the pernicious consequences of mistaken liberality,
in suffering you to rise above that condition to which you were
alike condemned by your colour and your country."
The application is obvious. Away then with the insulting
cruelty of condemning aspirations in the Roman Catholics
which they must be unworthy of freedom if they did not feel.
That they have beep so raised in character as to become duly
sensible of their constitutional rights, is one of the good effects
which have flowed from the legislative liberality they have al-
ready. experienced. That they ever entertained the thought of
resting finally satisfied, while they remained so far from the
goal of liberty, only prove the low state of rlepression to which'
they must have been formerly sunk, not-the deceitfulness of
their then professions, or, the extravagance of their present'
expectatioos.
But it may be instructive to those who are fOnd of criminat-
ing them for not adhering to their professions of finality,_where
finality was morally impossible, to call to mind the fate of their
own predictiona. Do they.reeellect how confidently the total
overthrow of the Constitution in Church and State, ',watt pre-
dicted at the time the elective :franchise was conceded : what
an outcry was raised, lest, when the great majority of the elec.;
'tore, Winne Popish, none but those in the Popish interest
should be returned tteParliathent. ? And how completely did
the event disappoint their apprehension ; when whole. myriads
of the newly-made Roman Catholic electors might be seen
preferring the Interest of their landlords above that of their
religion; and, in some instances, note only dissecting known
and tried friends, but actually voting for the very man who had
opposed, and was determined again to oppose their emancipa-
tion : so much more influential was the feeling of self-interest,
by which they were made to turn- on their own centers, than
the bond of a common faith by which they were to be kept
within the vortex of their religious system.
And-Yet I can well imagine even reasonable men alarmed at
the probable conse(psences. of that initentant, measure. I will
not pretend to vindicate the absolute wisdom of making so great
and so sudden a clittnge in the condition ofthe mass of the popula-
tion. But itis quite clear that whatevermay be the evils which ren
•derit on the' whole a.meature of doubtful utility,. no such in•
jury, as was foretold has resulted to the Protestant interest, as it
almost invariably happens that the bulk of the tenantry follow
their landlords just au. they -would do were he and they of the
seine religion ; 'so little-does that baleful bigotry of which we
have heard so much, and which is such a scarecrow, enter into
their pOlitical calculations.
Bur perhaps it iv the Roman Catholic Nobles and Gentry of
whom alone we keve reason to be afraid. They are thedange-
rous characters, whose disloyalty and bigotry may prove so fatal
'to the CtriatitutiOn. No; this will not be *aid.. The most violent
Will not make themselves so absurd as to do•these .respectable
men such injustice. Why; then, after having conferred sub-
stantial on the mob, do we heattate manifest
that confidence in them ter which their- rank, their education,
their property, theiettied and .unshaken lenity wildly entitle
has our conduct in-this particular been at the
tame time Condemned and ridiculed ' as straining at a gnat
While we swallowed a camel."
( To be continued.)

[From The Liverpool Courier, March 19.]
The valuable piece of plate, presented to our
late distinguished Representative, by his friends and constitu-
ents, on his expected departure from England to assume the
Government of British India, is finished, and may now be seen,
between the hours of ten and four, at Messrs. Robert Jones
and Sons', silversmiths, in Castle-street. We shall attempt to
describe this splendid specimen of British art, although the most
vivid description can convey to the mind only a very faint idea
of the richness and beauty of the original.
It is a centre ornament, or candelabrum, forty-two inches
high, and upwards of sixty in circumference at the base. It is
silver gilt, and weighs upwards of one thousand ounces.—
The base is in the tripod form, and rests upon three tortoises.
the plinth are three compartments, six inches wide, by
two and a half high. The first compartment contains a view
of the port of Liverpool. A ship under sail appears in the
foreground of the picture, and in the background George's-
Dock Pierhead, with St. Nicholas's Church, the Town-Hall,
St. Paul's, St. George's, and St. Tomas's, Churches in the
distance. The second compartment contains a representa-
tion of a section of the Town-Hall. The scene chosen is
that of an Election. Hustings are erected in the front,—
bars for several Candidates are open,—it crowd of specta-
tors is congregated before them,—and a coach, filled with
voters in the interest of Mr. Canning, accompanied by music
and flag's, having inscribed on them"rice British Constitution,"
The Friend of the Pilot that weather'd the Storm," " Canning
for ever!" &c., is in the act ofapyroaChing Mr. Canning's bar.—
, The Right Hon. Gent. appears in the centre of the bar surround.
ed by his friends, in the act of addressing the multitude of spec-
tators, some of whom are elevated upon the hustings, loudly
cheering their favourite candidate. The„ State of the Poll"
appears on the side of Mr. Canning's bat and, in the distance,
the lofty buildings on the north side of Dale-street are seen,
their windows and roofs crowded with spectators surveying the
animated scene beneath.- The third compartment exhibits a
view of the interior of the House of Commons, the theatre in
which Mr. Canning so often displays his great and unrivalled
talents. The Speaker is in the chair : the mace is on the table
before hiin : the- benches are crowded with members ; and
Mr. Canning is represented as standing on the floor,_ in the
act of addressing the Chair. The base of the pedestal repre-
sents a coral rock. Upon it, at the angles, are seated three
beautiful classic figures, under palm-tree leaves. The first
figure is emblematical of Science. In her hand she holds
a book, written in Oriental characters, which she is in the
act of perusing. At her feet are spread: a variety of hppro.
,priate scientific instruments and symbols: The second figure
is a personification of Navigation. The compass rests upon
her knee ;- and in her hand she holds the log-line and lead. On
the right, at her let, a staff; with a union tack on it, an anchor
and cable, a rudder, a capstern, and other nautical emblems are
appropriately disposed ; on the right, a buoy. CoM MERCE is
the third figure. She holds in her right hand a laurel crown, and
in her left a paltn branch, emblematic of the peace and harmony
which commercial intercourse creates amongst the different na-
tion/tot' the globe. Various appropriate symbols are displayed
at her feet. On the right appear a bale of goods and other ar-
ticles of commercial traffic; on the left a cornucopia, or horn of
plenty, the caducens, &c. &c. These three personifications of
the Geniuty of Science, of Navigation, and of Comtherce are
exquisitely beautiful. 'rhe figures are most chastely executed,
and the drapery is well disposed. They are amongst the most
prominent excellencies of the design. On the pedestal, between
these figures, are three tablets. The first tablet exhibits the
arms of the borough of Liverpool, tastefully executed. The
next displays Mr. Canning's arms, richly embossed, with the
motto—Ne cede malls ted contra. The third contains the in-
scription, very neatly executed, on flat gold field, in raised
1 bright letters. It is as follows :
PRESENTED
To the Right Honourable
orortou CANNING,
By a numerous body of his Friends,
Freemen and Inhabitants of
LIVERPOOL,
On his being appointed Governor-General of INDIA.
• JULY, 1822,
In grateful acknowledgment
Of his zealous and impartial attention
To the interests of all his Constituents,
For a period of ten years,
In the course of which
He has been four times elected
Their Itepresentative in Parliament ;
And in testimony of their respect,
As well for his private virtues
As for his disinterested and independent
Public conduct ;
And of their admiration
Of those transcendent talents,
As a Statesman and an Orator,
With which he has uniformly and fearlessly
Maintained the true Principles of •
The British Constitution.

A handsome fluted naval columns prings from the pedestal.
Its base is begirt, with a cable; and three dolphins are repre-
sented disporting themselves'at„tbeangles. On the upper part'
of the column, and surroundin it, are inscribed "Election of
1812," " Election of 1816," "Election of 1818," " Election of
1820 ;" the four periods .at which Mr. Canning was returned
to Parliament as Representative of Liverpool. Above these in-
scriptions appear the prows of three ships, with figure-heads;
the first representing a native of Asia, the second of Africa, and
the third of America. The capital of the column is beautifully
chased. From it issue acanthus leaves; attached to which are
branches for nine lights. The summit of the whole is crowned
by a beautiful classic figure, emblematic of the Genius of Liver-
pool, her right hand resting on a ship's rudder, and ber left on
a broad and glittering shield, with the fabulous bird, the LIVER,
depicted on it. On her head she wears a mural crown ; and
her drapery falls in simple elegance over her finely proportioned
form.

As a work of art, this splendid piece of plate is decidedly
of the first class : superior, in our opinion, to any modern com-
position, of a similar kind, which we have seen. There is an
unityand elegance of the design, equalled only by the exqui.
site manner in which its various parts are finished. The work
reflects the highest credit on Mr. Chantry, the designer, and on
Messrs. Rundle and Bridge and the various artists whom they
have employed in executing this beautiful specimen of Bn-
dab genius and skill.
To the feelings of Mr. Canning and his family it must be
highly gratifying. Rarely, indeed, in the representative
history of. England, have the services of a represents-
, tive been rewarded with such a mark of public approbation.-- ,
The intrinsic value of the plate is of little consideration. The
proofs of affection and esteem which such gifts exhibit, give to
them a value more durable than the perishable materials of
which they are composed. In the present instance, the design
silently, but eloquently, relates, in epitome, the Itivtorf of
Mr. Canning:a public connection with Liverpool, from its com-
mencement, in the year 1012, until the period of his intended
.departure for India. And it will tell to his latest posterity them
respect and admiration in which his character and talents were
held by the inhabitants of this great commercial community.
Nor is it less gratifying to the feelings of the subscribers. It is
a small, but sincere, token of the high respect which they en-
tertain fur Mr. Canning ; of their gratitude for the services
which he has rendered to Liverpool; of their admiration of his
talents as a statesman and an orator ; and of their deep regret
at parting with so gifted a statesman. Above all, it will per-
petuate those great political principles which first recommended
51r. Canning to their notice, and of which he has been the'
eloquent and fearless defender.
We understand that the whole cost of the plate will be about
one thousand guineas.
The,ptiblic are greatly obliged to Messrs. Jones for the fa-
cility of access which they afford to persons who are desirous of
beholding this splendid specimen of British art, and for the
politeness with which they describe its several parts.