The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-16 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Times, in noticing Lord Ellenborough's appoint-
ment, which it seems is not yet settled, to the Gover-
nor-Generalship of India, recommends, as a point of
great importance, that the Hindoos should be properly
instructed in astronomy, observing—" Our readers are
very generally aware of the prodigious advances which
have been made of late years by the educated native po-
pulation in extricating themselves from their bloody and
barbarous superstitions. Those superstitions, involving
annually an amount of torture, obscenity, and immola-
tion, which, as practised under the very eye of the
British authorities, must make humanity shudder, are for
the most part based upon, and indissolubly identified with,
certain wild chimeras of theirs, which they believe to be of
divine origin, relative to the physical phenomena and go-
verning spirit of the universe. Of this description in particu-
lar, is their absurd and monstrous system of astronomy ; and
since their ignorant misconceptions respecting the struc-
ture and changes of the material world form the very
life and soul of their revolting polytheism, every person
must see that, without necessarily attacking their reli-
gious prejudices in the first instance, the mere commu-
nication to them of just scientific views in a popular
form, accompanied by that rigorous demonstration which
the neuter Hindoos can intelligently appreciate, would
eventually involve, along with the demolition of what
they deem a heaven-revealed science, a complete disbe-
lief in the pretended divinity of their worship. Their
astronomy and their religion are, in their opinion,
equally divine ; and they stand or fall together."
The Chronicle observes, while comparing Sir Robert
Peel with Pitt—" Without placing Sir Robert Peel in
the first rank of Statesmen, it would be idle to refuse
to him more than an usual measure of industry and ap-
plication, and the possession of extensive information on
most of the subjects which occupy public men. Mr. Pitt,
when he entered on office, could not have posseased any
great stock of knowledge, from his youth. Even with-
out the evidence of Mr. Wilberforce, who knew him
intimately, as to his slender stock of knowledge, a
very cursory perusal of his speeches will satisfy any
one that, however superior as an orator, in political
information he was much below Sir Robert Peel. But
he possessed what Sir Robert Peel has not from nature,
and never, therefore, can have—the firmness of mind to
act on his own convictions as to what would most con-
duce to the welfare of the country. He believed him-
self to be an honest man, and he would have suffered
his right hand to be cut off rather than become the tool
of the aristocracy."—lt is impossible that Pitt could
have ever believed himself an honest man—commencing
public life, as he did, as a Reformer, and then after-
wards becoming the great arch-enemy of Reform. As
for his not consenting to be the tool of the aristo-
cracy, he was never anything else than their tool—their
cat's-paw.
The Herald, speaking of Nl‘Leod's case, says --" It is
always with feelings of pain, only equalled by the inten-
sity of our solicitude, that we advert to the case of Mr.
M'Leod. But the sense of duty that impelled us (in the
commencement of those events, which, accumulating in
rapid and fearful succession, have invested his position
with an interest so absorbing and so profound) to appeal,
on his behalf, to the outraged majesty of his country ;
becomes but the more distinct and strong with the arri-
val of every mail from the United States, that brings us
any intelligence of the aspect of his case. We write, at this
moment, under a vivid impression of the enormous magni-
tude of the results involved in the fate of M'Leod. This
impression is based on the conviction that, between the
restoration of that individual, in safety, to the authorities
of England—and war between England and the United
States in the event of his destruction—there is no alter-
native. There is no middle term between these two
extreme conditions. The wrong already done—the
violence, outrage, and oppression, already visited on a
British subject, whose stets have been reclaimed (so to
speak), by his own Government, as their acts—and
which reclamation of them has been accepted and re-
cognised by the explicit admissions of the Government
of the United States—these things have left no loophole
through which diplomatic ingenuity can now drag the
national prisoner out of the political. tempest ready to
burst on his devoted head, into the favouring obscurity of
a private culprit. It has been truly said that in the
person of M•Leod the greatness of the British nation is
criminally arraigned before an illegal tribunal consti-
tuted by the United States."
We quote the following from the Post:—" It were
idle to deny that there are many alarming symptoms in
the social condition of Great Britain. It is fearful to
behold an enormous mass of people whose means of ex-
istence are scanty and precarious, and who have thrown
off all restraint of reverence for that which is placed
above them. Men of the distnrbing and revolutionary
school seem to find a degree of triumph in this very
aspect of danger. See,' they cry, how matters really
are—you must do something—you must alter the laws—
you must begin by repealing the Corn-laws.' We
answer that changing the laws won't change the people,
and that is the only change which can be effec-
tual. 'While the people of all ranks, or all de-
grees of property, in the crowded manufacturing dis-
tricts, are what they are, it is a moral impossibi-
lity that they should be tranquil, or wise, or happy. It
is not in external circumstances, but in themselves that
the mischief lies. Changes of the law would signify
nothing beyond the moment. The desire of change—
the ignorant expectation of advantage from change—
would still be there, and presently would arise some
new occasion for restlessness and disturbance. Satisfy
the turbulent by repeal of the Corn-laws ! As well
might you hand the thirsty man a teaspoon full of water,
and tell him never to thirst more. Our opinion is either
that there is no hope at all, or that the true ground of
hope is in the reform of the people, not in the reform of
the law. And who is to; reform the people ? We answer
that if it is to be done at all, it is to be done by the
Church."

We quote the following observations from the Durham
Chronicle. —" War with America is the very worst evil
that could befal this country; and we are thoroughly
convinced that it is an -evil.which never would hav,e hap-
pened had a Whig Administration remained in power.
With the Tories at the head of affairs, we believe this
disastrous result pot improbable; for judging from past
experience, we know that the most impolitic wars have
obtained, and do still obtain, that faction's most hearty
assent."

The Dundee Chronicle, in an article suggested by the
present state of the country, remarks as follows :
" Should the winter be a hard one, we defy the Tories to
rule without shedding blood ; we defy them to check
ths clamours of a hungry mass of the manufacturing
population without filling the prisons and convict bulks ;
we defy them to eradicate the, deep-rooted hatred that
lies in the breasts of the people, towards them and their
procrastinating Government, without bayoneting or bul-
leting their hearts."
The Brighton Berald, in reference to Lord Alvanley's
pamphlet, says:—" Whilst the Anglo-Protestant Catho-
lics—the Puseyites--are thinking seriously of reuniting
the Church of England to that of Rome, and Rome is
meeting them half way, Lord Alvanley has published a
pamphlet, in which he contends that the State ought now
to support all the Catholic priests of Ireland; whilSt he
would make the Catholic priests a State Stipendiary,
would refuse all State asestance to the Dissenting
pastor, to which we are most decidedly opposed. It is
enough for the Dissenter to be taxed towards the support
of one true and Apostolic Church,' without being
saddled with two."

MONEY—TRADE—COMMERCE.
The celebrated Professor Heeren, of Gottingen Uni-
versity, has been commissioned, by the Hanoverian Go-
vernment, to make a careful inspection throughout France
and Belgium of the present condition of trade in those
countries, and to inquire into the causes which have con-
tributed to its immense development there during the
past few years.
At a meeting of the shareholders of the Bank of Man-
chester, held on Wednesday, th% surplus fund, after
every diminution, was stated at 19,000/.
The greatest distress prevails at this moment among
the working classes of the metropolis. The number of
unemployed tailors and shoemakers is daily increasing,
and the Spitalfields weavers are giving themselves up to
despair. The scenes of misery and want, even in that
distressed district, are quite unprecedented.
The favourite Greek wine, the Vino 811-ito of the
Agean, is often sold on the' spot for a penny a gallon.
The Marsala vineyards in Sicily, arc occupied at present
by English merchants.