The Sun.
London, England, 1840-02-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, -LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1840.

who takes the assertions of the:seller as perfect, unex-
aggerated truth. In this case the priesthood have
got wares to sell ; they have got old pupils for
touters, and the public will be an errant fool if it
take on trust their vouchers for their own honesty
and the goodness of their wares.
The question, let it be remembered, is not what
is good for the priesthood, but what is good for the
community, of which the priesthood and their pupils
are not competent judges. What legislator in his
senses, duly sensible of what the public interests
require, would make the representations of one
class of merchants the basis of a commercial code,
or the representations of landlords the basis of
laws relative to the food of the people ? And, on the
same principle, no sane-minded legislator should
make the representations of the priesthood and
their touters the basis of his enactments respecting
religious instruction. On that principle we shall
say something further on the demands now made
by the priesthood for more public money, taking
for the basis of our arguments well-known and
undeniable facts. _

What has, in fact, given rise to all this extreme
urgency for more religious instruction, and what is
the main fact on which alone the priesthood can
found the least hope of success ? The state of the
population, the growth amongst the lowest classes
of Chartism, Socialism, disobedience, and rebel-
lion. The aristocracy see the rise, throughout the
land, of an intelligence amongst the population,
which, be it for good or for evil, is obviously not
calculated to make the people subservient to them,
and they are ready to back the priesthood in get-
ing more power, under the hope that they may stifle
this new intelligence in the people. Among the
weavers, PAINE'S theology is in vogue ; amongst
the workmen throughout the country, Chartism is
rife ; and the most dangerous political doctrines are
espoused ; which is the great source both of the
present zeal of the clergy to teach the people, and
of the support they find in Parliament and.in the
country.

Moreover, the priest-party have of late &scribed
the Church as a sort of police--useful to drill the
people, and prevent crime. The Church Establish-
ment is not recommended as serving any heavenly
purpose. Sir ROBERT INGLIS, and his friends,
do not ask Parliament to extend the Church be-
cause by that means more souls will be saved ; such
an object would hardly be entertained : but the
Church is to be extended as an auxiliary to the State,
in preserving civil order and promoting the public
welfare. Placed on that ground we have a tangi-
ble test of its utility by which the claims of its
friends ought to be tried. Discarding all views
of religion, it is by that test we iall try it, as we
would try the utility of a horse-patrol or a found-
ling hospital.
The object to be obtained, then, is to make our
people moral by the instrumentality of the Church
and the doctrines it teaches. But the doctrines
of the Church are not a code of morality;
they are said to be the means of salvation.
We believe that no person has ever pretended that
they are a complete code of morality ; and what is
there in the peculiar learning of the clergy which
should fit them 'to frame a complete code, and in-
stil it into the minds of the people ? What the
people require is, a knowledge of their duties and
their rights, which are correlative terms ; of those
duties and rights the priests themselves have a
comparatively limited knowledge, and what they do
not know they cannot impart.
Of what use to a half-starved hand-loom weaver
—to a young man bred up in the country, who must
find his subsistence in some distant colony, or
in some mercantile pursuit—or to a Glasgow opera-
tive, who labours sixteen hours a day on small
wages, will be the knowledge which the priesthood
can give them,—so far as providing them food,
and making them useful and productive citizens is
concerned, which is all that the State cares to pro-
vide for ? We doubt very much, whether the
clergy, from their peculiar habits, and peculiar
and very limited knowledge, are at all calculated to
instruct the people either how to perform their
duties, or defend their rights as men and citizens.
The moral code on which they pretend to found
their teaching, but really do not—for they borrow
their ideas more from the world than the Gospel,
never recommending a man to turn his second
cheek to the smite:, nor to give his coat to him who
takes his cloak—is in many particulars not
adapted to our country. It was framed for a state
of society almost totally different from that in which
we live, when men were comparatively isolated and
independent, and when that great mutual depend-
ence both of individuals and nations, which division
of labour and extensive trade have introduced, were
wholly unknOwn. The Mosaic dispensation was
given to a pastoral people who were actually
forbidden to trade. The Christian dispensation
arose amidst the bloody contentions of Judea ; and,
just as we now see that the extreme violence of the
M'GHEES and M'NEreEs suggests peaceful coun-
sJls, as a counterbalance to their violence even to
the newspapers, so those bloody contentions-_
some of the worst that are to be found in the his-
tory of mankind—gave birth to those extreme doc-
trines of submission, forbearance, and passiveness,
which, though properly discarded in practice by our
clergy, form, in fact, as much a part of the
Gospels as any of its precepts which arc still most
in vogue.

Now, we say that a body of men, pledged to
teach doctrines not adapted to our society, cannot
be good guides for our people. Either they will
bring their teaching into contempt, by conforming
to the circumstances of society, while they pretend
to have a law superior to them, as in fact they now
conform partially, or they will insist on that law
bet followed, which, if ever it was practicable,
is now a gt;ide which nobody, not even the clergy,
ever think of obeying. On this principle, and we
can urge a multitude of similar considerations, we
contend' that the priesthood do not possess
the knowledge which the people require, and which
the Legislature wishes them to possess.
The priest-
hood, therefore, arc not calculated to instruct the
people in their rights and their duties, and no states-
man ought to extend the Church with the view of
obtaining a worldly benefit which the priesthood
cannot possibly bestow.

We see, with no surprise but much regret, that a
number of provincial journals friendly to the Mini-
sters, as well as the Examiner and the Nottingham
Review, whose articles on the subject we quote,
are very, but deservedly, severe on the conduFt of
tile Ministers in relation to the Dissenters. Adman-1g
Courts and Church rates,
atllilatoLuroridnsJt.itluittioisnssE, LL in office is bound to uphold
might includinghEavcecledsolansetthcaisl
duty to them without affronting the best and
staunchest friends of his party. lie cannot be
ignorant that the bulk of the Dissenters regard the
Clinch as an unchristian institution. It is avowedly
no part of Christianity, and they must say, unless
they be all hypocrites, that it perverts the Christian
religion. The principle of the Establishment is
to devote a certain part of the national income in
order to bribe men to adhere to certain forms of
faith, and certain modes of Church disciplines
which are not to be found in doe Bible, and which
were adopted at the period of the Reformation
with some slight modifications from the Ch urch of
Rome, and which are now embodied in the Thirty-
nine Articles. The Dissenters, conscientiously
differ from those forms of faith and those modes of
worship, and they regard the bribe given for men to
adhere to them as most unchristian. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, not contented with defending this un-
christian Establishment, with its offensive rates
and Ecclesiastical Courts, treated with some con-
tempt the conscientious inert who differ from bun
and the Church.

The Dissenters
justly say that the State has no
right to select one faith and one form of worship
for preference, and they feel that the Establishment
is a violation of their civil rights, as well as an in-
fraction of religious liberty.° Yet their chosen
champion, the statesman on whom they have
relied, now turns round on them, and tells them
they must suffer imprisonment and fine if they at-

tempt to resist the infraction of their rights. They
are naturally indignant at this, and the ex-
pression of their feelings, which will be found
in the Lynn petition, inserted elsewhere,
will no doubt find an echo in every town in the
kingdom.
We publish elsewhere the lists of those who
voted on Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion, and if we
are not mistaken several persons who owe their seats
almost exclusively to the Dissenters—as Mr: T. L.
HODGES, the Member for West Kent, Lord SUR-
REY, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, Mr.
LABOUCHERE, Mr. TUFFNELL, Lord J. RUS-
SELL himself, and most of the Members of the
Government—voted against them. These gentle-
men may have no wish to sit again in Parliament ;
but if they have, and expect that the Dissenters
will exert themselves to return them, they will be,
we are afraid, deceived. Their votes were bad, but
the speech of their leader was destrucive.

Madrid journals of the Bth inst., with advices from
ESPARTE rto's head-quarters of the sth, have come to
hand. The severity of the weather had put a stop to
all military operations, so that we have no victories to
commemorate. The QUEEN REGENT, by a Royal
decree, has appointed General MAROTO Judge of the
Supreme Court of War and Marine, left vacant by the
death of General ROSELLO. The opening of the New
Cortes was fixed for the 18th inst. (to-morrow), when
Queen ISABELLA, whose health is quite restored, and
her mother the Regent, will attend in person. It is
no longer doubtful that Ministers will hare a great ma-
jority in the Chamber ofDeputies.
The partizans of Don CARLOS are again endeavour-
ing to raise the standard of rebellion in the Basques.
Two horse-loads of arms imported from France were
seized near Vera, by some Spanish Carbineers, and
proofs of a conspiracy on a small scale discovered. The
insurgents, who lately raised the standard of revolt at
Barracaldo, near Bilboa, finding themselves pursued by
forty miquelets, had divided into two bands. One of
them, consisting of eighteen men, commanded by LA-
GUINA, was closely followed by a detachment of the
QUEEN'S troops. No account had arrived respecting
the other.

The Funds experienced a decline on the Madrid
Bourse on the 7th. The Five per Cenis, closed at 27
15-16ihs for cash.

The Paris Journals of Friday and Saturday are rm.:
cupied with the recent explanations between Marshal
SOULT and M. de MEDEM, noticed at sufficient length
in The Sun of Saturday. From the little ceremony
observed by our Parisian contemporaries in denouncing
the pretensions of the Imperial Cabinet, the inference
of the little cordiality subsisting betweea the Cabinets
of the Tuileries and St. Petersburgb, flows so obvi-
ously that there is no mistaking it.
We regret to have to announce the death of Mar-
shal MArsoN, which took place at Paris on Thurs-
day last, in consequence of the opening of a gun-
shot wound received upwards of forty years ago. The
shot had perforated the lungs, arrd the wound was re.
opened by a severe cold which the veteran hero of
many a well-fought field, during the ascendancy of the
Republic and the Empire, caught in the beginning of
the week. It is expected that the vacant baton will be
bestowed upon General SEBASTIANS.
M. GUIZOT'S departure from Paris, as Ambassador
to this Court, is fixed for to-morrow.

The Journal des Debats states the negotiations
between England and France for a mutual revision of
the Tariffs of the two countries are nearly completed.
Considerable concessions have been made on both sides.
E igland consents to reduce the import duty on wine,
brandy, mirrors, ornamental paper, decorations, &c. ;
and France agrees to receive British hardware, earthen-
ware, linen yarn, and same other articles, forming the
staple product of this country. France, however, re-
fuses to make any concession in favour of unwrou.ght
iron. Similar negotiations between France and Hol-
land have been going on for the last year, and we have
pleasure in stating that they are on the point of being
satVactorily terminated. The navigation of the Mo-
selle and the Meuse from the Rhine is to be thrown
open to Dutch shipping. French ships, on the other
hand, employed in the cotton trade between the United
States and France will be allowed to discharge their
freights at Rotterdam, subject only to the regulations
imposed upon Dutch vessels. This concession is of
great importance to the cotton manufacturers of the
South of France.

BOURSE,--PARIS, SATURDAY, FEB. 15.
first Highest Lowest I,ast
l'rice Price. Price. Price
French 5 per Cents ll2 95 ... 113 .., IP2 95 ... 1 3
4 per Cents 10:? 25 . ,t 3 '25 ... 103 25 ... 103 25
3 per Cents Bl 85 . 31 9i ... 81 85 ... SI 92
1;,:n1s. of France... 318,1 _3'9) ...3150 ...3193
LalliZte MLA I,ooof. 811 1055 ...107;7 s') ...1055 ...1 57 50
Belgian Bank 9ts) ... 90 50 ... 957 50 ... 957 50
5 pta- Cents
3 per Cents 7l 25 ... 71 10 ... 71 25 ... 71 40
United Stases Dank Loan
, P9!.;', ... 99;4 ... 99)4 ~. 9954
Sp.unsli Aezive... ...........
Pas Sire 6% ... 874 ... 9%) ... 631
Old Deferred
Portnp„itese 3 per Cents 2314 ... 2314 ... 2.31,4 ... 23,4
Nlca.olitan
Roman IO3Y. ... 10Z7i ... 103% ... 1033,
RAILWAY 811ANEs.
St. Germain
Versatnes, 1/21 MO ... 550 ... 550 ... 550

L.B. 390 ... :30
Orleans ..
S:-.rasbure. to 13nle 351 e 5 ... 557 53 ... f,;51 25 ...:355

ASPHALTES AND BITU
Yarn (Moberly %) ....... 335 ... 435 ... 430 ... 430

In another part of The Sun will be found an accoun
of the melancholy death of Mr. David Jones, late
Dissenting Churchwarden of Llanon, in Wales. The
Court of Queen's Bench had released him from the
prison into which he had been cast by the Rev. Mr.
Morris, and is pronouncing judgment, intimated he was
entitled to costs. It was supposed the matter would
rest there, but such was not the wish nor intention of
the parson. A new writ for impriSonment was obtained
from the Ecclesiastical Court, and in order to escape
the horrors of a dungeon, the unfortunate victim of
Church oppression left his native town in the hope of
finding some place of retreat. He was seized with
i'lness on the way, and overcome with fatigue of body
and anxiety of mind, suddenly expired. We bate no
occasion, if there were room, to make any comments on
this painful catastrophe. Will the Tory Disseni'ts
now say they acted wisely last year in sapporting t!.e
Church that thus persecutes their brethren?

RUSSIAN EXPEDITION AGAINST

KIIIVA.

ST. PETERSBURG, JAN. 23.—Our troops utder General
Perowsky, on their march to Khiva, have reached the
Yamba, and there halted for some time in order to
prepare for the march through the Barsuk Steppe. Small
tents of reindeer's skin, lined v.ith fur, and fur clothing,
cualile.d them to bear 30 deg. of cold, (9 Ream.)
The river here called the Yamba can be no other than
the Emba which runs into the Caspian Sea.
This account clears up the d mbt respecting the direc-
tion of the expedition, as it shows that it marches between
the Caspian and Lake Aral. The Barsuk (Burzuk)
Steppe, consists of sandhills, beginning in a line with east
an extraordinary supplement, containing the following ac-
cud of Lake Aral—Prussian States Gazette, Feb. 11.

Sr. PETERSBURG, FEB. 4.---The Russian Invalid gives
counts from the expedition to Khiva
" In consequence of the declaration of his Majesty re-
specting the motives and the object of the military opera-
tions against Khiva, the detachment under General Pe-
romAky left Orenburg on the 29th of /sLiverriber. On the
17th of December it reached Bisch Tamale, a place 270
versts from Orenburg, where it halted on the 18:h, and
Te Deem was performed in honour of his Majes.y's
fete. On the 19th, the detachment having pro-
vided itself with water for drinking, and wood,
continued its march, and on the 31st of December
reached the first fortified port at Ary inks:hi on the river
Emba. The detachment had happily overcome all the
difficulties of a march in the winter, and through the
Steppe, to that place. Notwithstanding the unremitting
severe cold, which was 32 deg. by Iteaumur's thermo-
ineter, (this is fiy Fahranheit 72 deg. below freezing
point, or 40 deg. below Zero), nobody suffered by it.
The health of the troops had been completely preserved by
the quantity of provisions, and all the other resources
which the detachment has with it. Or, the march General
Pero wsky was confirmed by the inhabitants of the Steppe,
that a corps of troops from Khiva was in motion against the
advance': entrenchments which were erected in the summer
of .1839, in the Emba, near Ak-Bulak. This news was
fully confirmed. On the 3i of December a corps of
two thousand Khivans unexpectedly attacked the
entrenchments of Ak-Bulak, but was firmly received by
the garrison, and repulsed with loss, after a brisk fire of
musketry, in which we did not lose a man. On its re-
treat the corps attacked, on the 31st, at the distance of 15
versts from Ak-Bulak, a convoy, which was to proceed to
that place from the fort on the Embra, escorted by a
company of inf .ntry and a company of Cossacks of Oren-
burg. The Kivans surrounded their troops, who had no artil-
lery, for 24 hours, and attacked them furiously sevend times,
but were always repulsed with loss, and at length obliged
to give way to that weak detachment, without having time
even to carry off their dead. Captain Jerosejeff, who com-
manded our treops, brought his convoy safe to Ak-Bulak,
having had only five me.a killed and eleven wounded.
General Perowsky's detachment ,--as to halt five or six days
in the Embra, to take some repose, and make arrange-
ments to continue its march. It was to proceed directly
by way of Ak-Bulak, to the territory of Khiva. On the
6th of January, when the last account was dated, the state
of the corps was perfectly satisfactory."
BRUSSELS, FEB. 15.—His Highness Prince Ferdinand
of Saxe Coburg, and the Princess Victoria, his daughter,