The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-27 00:00:00

dirt, as might he expected, on Archbishop
r% ri A TELY. AL the it s'acti, as tile
true principle of our Established Church, " a doc-
trinal uniformity, which, as alone justifying the
confidence of the people, constitutes at once the
essence and the stability of an established faith."
Of what is this doctrinal uniformity the result ?
Of enlarged and liberal inquiry—of conflicting
statements freely made, anti tried by the test of
experience, such as established the " doctrinal uni-
formity" of the LA VOSIERIAN theory of combus-
tion, and the NEWTONIAN themy of gravity ? No,
Of an Act of Convocation, passed in the year
1562, not for establishing truth, but for " avoiding
dive, sities 9fopinion," passed,too, at a time when free
discussion was not allowed, and when the minds of
those who drew it up—nurtured in Popery—were
scarcely emancipated from any of its errors, and
adhered to it.; most profitable, if not its most
offensive doctrines. That Act of Convocation,
drawn up by a number of semi- Popish Bishops
and other Priests, is the foundation of that uni-
formity of doctrine which is at once the " essence
and the stability of our Established Church." It
was dictated by men who, having themselves just
forsaLn their old faith, naturally supposed that
other men would be inclined to change as they had
changed, and naturally doubted whether there were
any standard of truth which men would not wrest
to their own purposes.
Not merely the errors of 1562, but the fears of
the semi• Papist Bishops, were fixed in the cele-
brated Thirty-nine Articles, and have been fixed
in them ever since, as the pattern of faith for all
the members of the Angl,can Church. Such is
the source of the present faith of the Established
Church, the members of which may be said to
hope for salvation by means of an Act of Con-
vocation.

We have received Madrid Journals of the 18th inst.,
but their contents are unimportant. In the Cortes the
Municipal Bill was still undnr discussion.

The French Journals of Monday give us to under-
stand that the Cabinet has at last bethought itself of
the expediency of making a general change in the Pre-
fectures. On Monday M. THIERs called a meeting of
Ministers to deliberate on this most important measure ;
which, if carried into full effect, will greatly strengthen
the hands of the Government. M. THIERS, like Lord
MELBOURNE, was hitherto content to have the Cabinet
liberal, leaving all the subordinate places in the occu-
pancy of the MOLE, or Conservative party. He saw,
day after day, his Government assailed by placemen,
pensioners, Prefects, and officials of all descriptions,
while his supporters were men upon whom he had it
not in his power to bestow the crumbs of official pa-
tronage. The Left became at last disgusted with this
fostering of enemies and neglect of friends. They
plainly intimated to the President of the Council that
they would withdraw their support if he allowed the
administration of their policy to be thwarted by officiais
notorious fcr their avowed hostility to it. The Minis-
ter has had as ample experience recently as Lord MEL-
BOURNE himself; that nothing is gained by conceding the
tenure of places to political opponents, and that all de-
licacy in such cas2s is mis:aken for weakness. He has
therefore resolved that the Government shall no longer
have most to fear from its own officers and the depen-
dants upon its bounty ; and whether he stand or fall, we
applaud the manly straightforwardness of such a re-
solution.

The Constitutionnel enters into a long official expla-
nation of the Buenos Ayres' question, the drift of which
is that nothing has been done one way or the other by
Admiral DDPOTET. The article is a riddle not worth
solving.
The Univers publishes a letter from Rome, which
will furnish the Times, the Post, the Standard, and
the Herald, with materials for a series of virulent at-
tacks on the Papacy; and the M'GHEEs and O'SoL-
LIVANS for an occasion of another vagabondising tour
through Great Britain. This letter states that the
POPE has resolved upon the conversion of this country
to the Catholic filth, and that, instead of four, as at
present, he has divided England into eight districts, to
each of which a Bishop, under the name of a Vicar Apos-
tohcal, has been appointed. The letter does not state
that the POPE is acting by the advice of the Bishops of
EXETER and LONDON, nor indeed that his HOLINESS
has had uny communication with the English Prelates
on the subject ; but we have been assured that a high
dignitary of the Romish Church stated at an entertain-
ment, not a great while ago, at which were present
several clergymen of the Church of England; that the
Holy See would not despair of the re-conversion of
England, while her Established Church retained a
Liturgy which was but a translation of the Missal. It
is true that it was uttered as a pleasantry ; but all who
have taken the trouble to inform themselves of the
opinions propagated by the Propaganda Society must
KNOW it to be a fact.
NEWS FROM FRENCH AFRICA.—A letter, written from
the Pass of Teoiah, on the 15th, states that all the pre-
parations were completed, and that on the 16th the army
would descend along the southern declivity of the Atlas,
and march upon Medeah. The same letter adds, that
Generals Marbot and Rumigny, and the chief of battalion
Grosbon, bad been wounded in the attack of the 12th, and
that the loss of the French on that day did not exceed 50
killed and 150 wounded.

Private advices from Algiers of the 17th, published by
other Paris journals, estimate the loss of the army on the
12th at 500 men, of whom 150 had remained on the field.

The Toulonnais of the 22d states, that previous to the
attack Marshal Vallee had done everything to draw the
soldiers of the Emir into the plain. The Emir was seen
several times on the mountain, preceded by a red flag,
and rousing the courage of his fanatical followers.
In the afternoon of the 14th a body of Arabs suddenly
appeared in the direction of Texeraim, and advanced within
a couple of miles of Algiers, and encamped during the
night close by the Maison Carree. In their progress
through the country they murdered an entire family, de-
ciipitated two men and a woman, carried off four infant
children, arid burnt end ransacked several farmhouses.
This unexpected invasion struck terror throughout the
whole neighbourhood of Algiers, and the colonists all
flocked into the dry. The garrison of the Maison Carree,
and of the intrenched camps, having been forbidden by the
Marshal to quit their lines, the assailants, about 400 in
number, spread devastation everywhere with perfect im-
punity. On the lath a detachment of troops having sal-
lied out of Kolbe, repulsed the Arabs with considerable
loss.