The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-28 00:00:00

The presentation of a sword to a child is sug-
gestive of some observations on the ridiculous
form in which all Europeans embody testimonies
of respect for eminent individuals. Swords are
presented to retired Generals, who no longer
want them, or who, wanting them, ought only to
receive them from the hands of the Sovereign.
SnufF-boxes are given to men who never used
tobacco in any form; and salvers are voted to
individuals who never knew the luxury of a side-
board. What do such men as WELLINGTON and
NAPIER want with swords? Can they have better
blades than those with which they carved their
way to fame? They merit rewards, but these should
be substantial and appropriate. The freedom
of cities, too, is usually bestowed upon persons
who neither reside in them nor are in any way in-
terested in commerce. Thus Sir R. PEEL is a
tailor, and JOSEPH HUME a fishmonger, of the
City of London.
If the Magistrates of Paris wish to stand well
with the infant Count they will present him
with a pap-spoon and coral and bells, and reserve
the presentation of the sword till his Royal
Highness is grown big enough to wear it. They
will then be better able to judge of the appro-
priateness of such a gift. For ourselves, if we
may be allowed an opinion upon such a subject,
we are inclined to think that France has put
swords enough in the hands of the ORLEANS
family.

The Morning Chronicle assures us that it is an
idle rumonr that the resignation of Ministers was
likely to follow on the defeat of Monday. We
are glad to learn that, for it would be very dis-,
creditable to them to give up on such an °cm=
sion. To remain in office, however, they must
do something to recover their power, and what
they ought to do should be the present subject of
their serious thoughts. The party they had in
the country is fast dwindling into nothingness,
and they must place themselves at the head of
another, or consent to retire and leave the field
for more energetic and more resolute men.
The question on which they were defeated is
completely insignificant. It interests nobody
szcept the aspirants for office, and may be easily
reg•alated when the people have bread and are
coiatented. It began in this way :—The Tories
found out that there was great perjury at the
/Irish elections; they made a great noise about
it ; the Ministers hastily acceded to their state-
ments; and hence the efforts of both parties to
correct an imagined evil. Mr. C. WOOD last
night very properly scouted the idea of much
perjury, and this being disproved, the neces-
sity for now meddling with the subject
is at once extinguished. What follows?--
why that Ministers should immediately throw
overboard the nonsense of Irish Registration, and
take up the important business of the country.
The bold step, then, which the country expects
from the Ministers, is this—that they should
state in the House on Wednesday that they
throw the care of the two Bills on the allied Lords
HOWICK and STANLEY, and that finding much
distress and much discontent in the country,
united with a failing commerce and a declining
revenue, they mean to turn their immediate at-
tention to matters of more importance. They
will therefore, on Friday, submit their Bud-
get to the House, and endeavour, hoping
for the support of the House, to carry on the
real, not sham, business of the country.
They will not, of course, state on Wednesday
-what the Budget is to be, but on Friday they
should be ready to point out the difficulties of the
country (and the accounts from the manufactur-
ing districts are most gloomy), and should pro.
pose to Parliament a great reduction in the
duties on sugar and timber, abolishing the discri-
minating duties, and proposing the abolition of
the landlords' bread-tax, or at least the substitu-
tion of a small fixed duty on corn. If, after thus
throwing themselves on the good sense of the
country, and on the interests of the bulk of the na-
tion, they should be obliged to dissolve Parliament,
they will have something to go to the country upon.
At present they have nothing, they cannot carry
on the Government, and they•must choose be-
tween some bold measure of great public utility
or an ignominous retreat from power, with-
out the probability of averting that confusion
to avoid which is probably their motive
for always yielding to the Tories. They have
for five years experienced the folly of such con-
duct. The division of last night brought that
principle to its termination, and they must either
change their course, and permit the men whom
they by their obedience virtually acknowledge
to be their masters, to accede to office, or they
must aim a deadly blow at Tory policy and Tory
power.

The Madrid papers of the 18th instant have
reached us. On that day the debate on the Re-
gency question commenced in the Chamber of
Deputies, but up to pos.'t, hour nothing was de-
cided. The only ne‘'es brought by these Journals
is the following decree, which appears in the
Gazette of tke 18th

The Provlsional Regency of the kingdom has adopted the
following ';iecree
" I.st,. The Archbishops, Bishops, Prelates, &c., are to
with:draw the permissions from priests to confess, to say the
n'.‘ass, &c.. which were given to ecclesiastics who, after the
decree of the Bth of October, 1835, received superior orders
from foreign prelates, or from, those who followed the Pre-
tender's party, if they have not been authorised by their
own diocesans. 2. They have to transmit to the Minister
of Justice information as to the circumstances which at-
tended the ordination of each priest. 3. The first article is
not applicable to priests who inhabited the Basque provinces
and the Navarre which were occupied by the factious.
Nevertheless, the superior ecclesiastical authorities will trans-
mit information on their behalf to the Minister of Justice.
4. The priests from whom the permissions will have been
withdrawn will cease to enjoy the immunities granted to the
clergy. They will be looked to as persons of the secular
order. 5. The Alcades are not to allow those priests to
perform the duties of their office 6. Amongst the priests
who are interdicted are some who wish to go abroad,
and passports will be delivered to them. 7. Are subjected to
the preceding measures, those priests who received superior
orders in infraction of the decrees and by virtue of dispensa-
tions and pontifical warrants not bearing the Royal exequatur.
8. Don Manoel Diez de Tijada, administrator of the Bishop-
rick of Malaga, and the excommunicated D. T. Fernandez
Rebollier, and J. D. M. Munez will be banished, and their
temporalities sequestrated.—Herein fail not.

(Signed) ~ Duke de la VITTORIA.
" Madrid, April 11, 1ti41."
" To Don Alvaro Gomez Becerra."

The whole of the Paris Journals of Sunday
have reached us. On Saturday the Chamber of
Deputies rejected the petition of the French re-
sidents at Monte Video against the Treaty of the
31st of October. The petition had been referred
to a Committee, whose Report upon it concluded
as follows :

theirs s injuredA disposition peculiar to some of the French leads them t
meddle in the political affairs of foreign countries, where they
Am
mai' have settled with commercial views. This conduct of
county ha
ies in
tehriecaOur
authoritiesand
commercialtlie p oapguelnattsi,o n i
nosft
ead diverso f
and supported it
mistakes, which Govern
combatting this pr • •
; oparrty, have, on the contrary, approved
hence have arisen complications and
111ent has deplored, and which have
observationsur are just, sensible, and well-
cositldieeasretothetreas
timed, and their adoption by the Chamber, does
credit to the moderation of that body. We do
obnoxiousnot
•
mean
to say that
charge Frenchmen are especially
of
meddling with the
political affairs of countries in which they form
temporary residence. In this respect they are
no worse than our own countrymen
abroad,
whose itch for politics, or whose ill-timed religi-
ous zeal, is a constant source of annoyance and
trouble to the Government.

The Archbishop of PARIS and the three French
Cardinals will assist at the baptism of the Comte
PARIS. On the day the Church receives him
into her bosom, the grave and dignified Magis-
trates of Paris are to present the youthful hero
with a sword with which to defend their liberties.
They ought rather to present him with a piece
of cannon, or, if in their wisdom they could
manage it, with the whole fortifications of the

derstand or answer it. Much will depend upon
his nurse, and the novelty of the baubles selected
to amuse him. However, the Magistrates hope
the best, and are only anxious how they shall
acquit themselves to advantage in the presence
of so many Princes, Marshals, Peers, and Cardi-
nals. The infant Count, like other children of
his age, tests the value of everything by the
taste. We trust the Magistrates will be careful
not to suffer him to put the sword in his mouth.