The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-17 00:00:00

Whit --,AVIL

LONDON
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1841.

The religious fermentation is not confined to
the University of Oxford. It agitates Germany,
and troubles even the ruffled waters of the
United States. The most untiring Bible readers
are growing dissatisfied with the administration
wiiinicsitli claiming to be
tution, has aofptohlei
tiCcahluarcsl:voelfl
religiousEasnglad,
con-
tributed nothing to the social welfare and moral
improvement of the working classes. Every-
where the Church of Rome is exercising an in.
fluence hitherto unfelt since the period of the
Reformation. The New York papers loudly
complain that the Roman Catholics in that State
regulate all their political movements by the
direction of the Catholic .Bishop, who, under the
plea of watching over the education of children,
or
.advancing some religious object, contrives to
wield an immense political power. In Prussia,
two Prelates set the laws of the Monarchy
defiance for upwards of two years, and in the end;
were almost more than a match for the Sovereign::
In Bavaria, the Bishop of Passau has not only
disobeyed the commands of the King, but read
his Majesty a theological lecture, which there is
no danger of his speedily forgetting. The Queen
Dowager of BAVARIA universally respected for
her great kindness to the poor, and her many
other virtues, recently died as she had lived, in
the Reformed religion. The King ordered a
solemn funeral service to be performed for her in
all the principal churches of Bavaria. When
this mandate, dictated by filial piety, was com-
municated to the Bishop of Passau, that proud
priest addressed a pastoral letter to the clergy of
his diocese, of which the purport may be gathered
from the first paragraph, which is as follows :
" A desire may be felt by many intrusted in our dio-
cese with the cure of souls to know what description of
religious ceremony ought to be performed on the occa-
sion of the lamented death of her Majesty the Queen
Dowager Caroline ; we thereforeei,acquaint and command
the entire clergy of the diocese of Passau to abstain in
this present case from Church religious observances of
every kind, such, according to the prescriptions of our
Holy Church, being only usual in cases of the decease of
members incorporated in the same. We especially for-
bid the offering of the sacrifice of the mass, under pain
of suspension, and the putting up the prayers usual in
the Catholic Church for its deceased members."

The Church of Rome does not pray for the
souls of -dead heretics. This, in the fewest
words, is the sum and substance of this pastoral
address. As Reformers deny the efficacy of
prayers for the dead, it would have been as well
had such a Royal mandate not been addressed
to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Still, having
been so addressed, the bold defiant attitude
assumed by the Bishop in rejecting it, savours
of Rome in the pahniest days of her power.
The Archbishop of VIENNA has addressed a
pastoral letter to his clergy, forbidding them to
celebrate any marriage between a Catholic and
a Protestant, unless the parties first agree to
educate their children in the Catholic faith. It
is further stated to be the bounden duty of the
Roman Catholic husband or wife to make a con-
vert of her or his heretical helpmate. Here is
food for more troubles in Germany, for the Ger-
man Lutherans are never slow to retaliate any
blow coming from Rome. There, too, Mysticism
—a sort of German Puseyistn—is at work ; and
hardly is there a single university in the German
States in which Mysticism has not. made exten-
sive inroads. Some of them regard the Bible as
a book of symbols ; and, by the majority of
them, many of the traditions of the Roman and
Greek Churches are held to be co-equal in
authority to the precepts of that sacred volume.
The mind of a
great part of Europe is fast
losing its moorings both in religion and politics.
Safe anchorage for the soul, the Oxford divines
teach, is not to be found within the pale of the
Church of England; and the condition of the
working classes of this, country is such as to take
away from them all confidence in the wisdom
and beneficence of an Administration not directed
by themselves. It is a singular phenomenon in
the history of.the world to see Oxford re-robed
in superstitions- too 'dark for the cloisters of Sa-
lamanea—to see-, the,, chain with which Popery
bound Imperial Spain, but which that nation has
volily burst antr.cast from her, attempted to be
rivetted by a knot. of recreant priests upon-the

neck of Protestant England. And yet such is the
spectacle now presented to astonished Europe.

The Journals of the landlords have of late
taken to abuse the millocrats, as the Times calls
the intelligent men who plan and arrange, each
in his sphere, the whole manufacturing system,
and direct the exertions of numerous bodies of
workmen. Their great and recently acquired
wealth is made a reproach to them. They are
charged both with neglecting and oppressing
their labourers. They are held up to odium as
extortioners, mere money getters, who think of
nothing but how much toil they can extort for
the smallest possible reward. They are accused
of tasking infancy beyond its powers, and of al-
lowing it no holidays, of withholding adequate
wages from the able-bodied, and denying solace
and relief to those whose toils in their service
have caused premature decay.
Some of these charges, and, in individual cases,
perhaps, all of them, are true. It cannot be de-
nied that, amongst the millowners, though some
are as mild and benevolent as Mr. STRUT; there
are others who are insensible to all generous
feelings. They share, to a large extent, it must
be admitted, the general vice, and steadily pur-
sue their way to wealth, whatever may be the
cost to humanity. Public events, as well as
private circumstances, have proved that many
swollen and bloated cotton lords have surpassed.
the lords of the soil in arrogance, rapacity, and
pride. The complaints of the Truck, and Tom-
and-Jerry shops which were noticed in the Legis-
lature, still find an echo in various parts of the
country, and prove that some masters are more
intent on getting wealth by plundering their
workmen, than by improving the arts, and reduc-
ing the cost of the articles they manufacture.
They have undoubtedly been too prone to imitate
the rapacity of the landlords, and, in gathering in
their own bountiful harvests, have not only left
nothing for the poor to glean, but have some-
times carried off their share of the crop, and re-
fused to pay them for their toil.

For several years there has been an avowed
contest in England between capital and labour,
and the advantages,which have generally been on
the side of the former, have not often been used
with moderation. The combinations or unions
amongst the workmen, against which the masters
have said so much, have completely failed to
prevent excessive competition, and to keep up
the rate of wages. The present condition of the
labouring classes is a conclusive proof, that the
efforts of the labourers to defend them-
selves and improve their condition, have not
been successful. If their combinations could
have effected that object, which we believe they
could not, every reflecting man would regret
their failure. But as they have failed, and as
the capitalists have been almost uniformly suc-
cessful, it is clear that the labourers have been
in the long run at their mercy, and must have
accepted the terms their masters chose to offer
them. In saying a few words in defence of the
millocrats, as the Times calls them, we are far
from intending to become their champions as
against the labouring classes, but rather wish to
contrast their conduct and situation with those of
the landlord, and show how much more they
deserve of the community than the landed aris-
tocracy.

If the millocrats have enriched themselves, as
the Times reproaches them with having done,
they have also contributed very much to enrich
the landowners. The rental of the country, par-
ticularly in the neighbourhood of the towns they
have called into existence, has been amazingly
increased. An elaborate account was some time
ago published in a pamphlet, called " A Plea
for the Total and Immediate Repeal of the Corn-
laws," of the rental of 100 parishes in Scotland,
which had increased, in the forty-five years pre-
ceding 1840, from 287,139/. to 744,2731 i Now,
whatever portion of that increase AttlitrrtAtitit.fi
arisen from the industry of die teBfiMpititho;
and labourers, it is clear thai'We:nielicjinypers
and receivers of the rent, as such, did,,,llothing
'whatever to promote the: increaseTlybich was
, mainly due to the stimulus given by the progress
of the manufacturing population. The landlords
have been enriched by the labours of those millo-
•crats whom these Journals now most ungrate-
fully reproach with their wealth.
Amongst the millocrats are to be-found a nutn-
ber,of ingeniOus inventors, and one and all of
them plan,,,arrange, and carry into effect the
vastioperations of which they are at the head.
They do not enrich themselves without creating
a great quantity of employinent for the people,
and in all the new arts they have brought for-
ward wages have necessarily
:been, higher than
in the old arts. They have thus.'-conferred
great benefits on the public, while they have
enriched themselves. The recipients of rent
have only lived in splendourOn the fruits of other
men's industry.

The millocrats have no especial protection
from the Legislature, farther than the common
protection given to all property. They have
passed no laws to tax the people for their ad-
vantage. They have grown rich by their own
exertions, with the exertions of the people, whom
they have organized, instructed, and employed.
The landlords, on the contrary, have had special
protection, and exemption from taxation ; they
have passed laws to tax the people for their ad-
vantage ; they have kept their wealth, or added
to it, by oppression ; and have only plagued the
community by passing a number of bad laws in
in return for the wealth the community has be-
stowed on them.

Moreover, the millocrats are under no obliga-
tion to the State for their wealth ; they have ac-
quired it by their own exertions. On the land-
lords the State has bestowed the land, and has
coupled the gift with conditions for the advan-
tage of the public, which the landlords have
evaded. Without therefore, entering into any
defence of the millocrats, as the Times calls them,
against the people, we can unhesitatingly assert,
that, as contradistinguished from the landlords,
they are as light to darkness. The wealth of
the one is mainly the result of honest industry,
the wealth of the other is the offspring of disho-
nesty and extortion.

Belgian and German Papers of the latest dates
have been received. We give the following ex-
tracts from them :--

BRUSSELS, DEC. 12.---The Monitenr Beige of this
morning publishes five conventions concluded and signed
at Berlin on the 19th of May, at Hamburgh on the 25th
of June, at Brunswick and Berlin on the 15th and 17th
of July, and at Wiesbaden on the 16th of September,
1841, between Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Saxe
Weimer, the city of Hamburgh, the Duchy of Bruns-
wick, and the Duchy of Nassau. These conventions re-
gulate, by formal stipulations, the rights of the inhabit-.
ants of the respective countries in regard to the trans-
mission of property.
BRUSSELS, DEC. 14.—Several Belgian journals have
spread a report.of purchase of arms and powder, and of
the enlisting of men, stated to have taken place at Eisohe,
in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, and which, was con-
nected with the plot at Brussels. It appears from pri-
vate accounts and indubitable information that there have
never been at Eisohe either muskets or ammunition or
enlisting of men, except in the brains of the individuals
who announced this news in a letter addressed to a per-
son in the Belgian army, who was already under arrest.
The Moniteur publishes a commercial convention be-
tween Belgium and Denmark, concluded at Copenhagen
on the 13th of June last.
The Chamber has vot.edrto-day the budget of the
Marine department, amouriting,to 960;849 francs.
The Chamber of Coretuercw of-Meestricht has sent
a petition to the ,King .of .Holland,,tribt' to renew the
convention concluded with ,Ltizernbilig on 'the 31st of
Dec., 1840, which expires on .1-ttn.litt next.

The French Journals of Tuesday continue to
report at much length the proceedings of the
Court of Peers, which has not yet done with. the
QUENISSET affair. It is labour lost. Nobody
in France seems to care half a farthing about the
trial, or what becomes of the vagabond QUE-
NISSET. Were DUPOTY discharged, as he
ought to be, the Court might sit hearing the ridi-
culous rhapsodies of that pliant tool of tyranny,
M. HERBERT, the Procureur-General, till the
evening of doomsday, without provoking an in-
quiry out of doors.

We confess we are surprised to find the Oppo-
sition. Journals rather satisfied than otherwise

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