The Sun.
London, England, 1823-01-31 00:00:00

FOR. THE SUN.

ANCIENT MANIJSCRIPT,S.

MR. EDITOR—The greatest literary acquisi-
tion of our times is the recover/ of the chief
part of Cretno's famous treatise "'Dc re Pub.
Ilea," which has been lost for many centuries.
It is often referred to by himself in his other
works, and was quoted by writers till the time
of AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS ; that is, till the
reign of THEODOSIUS, in the 4th century. It has
at length been recovered from a rescript, or twice
written manuscript ; the valuable book itelf
having been cut up and washed, to place some
paltry work of the dark ages upon its leaves.
The first writing, however, is still legible, and
has been traced throughout by the Abbe MAI,
Librarian of the Vatican ; except where leaves
have been lost, which happens, alas ! much too
often. The chasms, therefore, are frequent ;
generally of two pages only, but now and then
of utauy more. Yet many pages together are
still perfect, and, on the whole, it may Orhaps
be said that nearly three-fourths of this valuable
work are recovered.

This is not the first discovery of the same na-
ture which the learned and sagacious Abbe has
made. In the Ambrosian Library at Milan,
where he was before, he traced out a large part
of the works of Fronto, and Symrnachus, both
famous orators, in a later age : of the first of
whom we had nothing; of the hitter, only Epistles.
lie found also some fragments of lost orations of
Cicero. These discoveries occasioned his pro-
motion to be Librarian to the Pope, in whose
service his labours have now been crowned Kith
this extraordinary success. Why, then, should
we not indulge the hope that some other M. S.
may in time fill up the chasms occasioned by the
mutilation of the first.

This treatise De re Publieu, (not on a Repub-
lic, but on Government) like the other philoso-
phical works of the great Orator, is a Dialogue ;
the Speakers in which are Scipio Africanus, the
younger, La.lius, and several friends of those
great men. It •is extended to six books, in
which Scipio, the most learned and philosophical
politician, as well as the greatest General, of his
age, is made to deliver his sentiments at large
upon the most desirable form of Government.—
Like others, he distinguishes the three simple
forms of Monarelw, Aristocracy, and Demo.
vracy ; of which he greatly prefers the first, ex-
cept from its tendency to degenerate into ty-
ranny B. 1. ch. 45). But above all he
,prefers
a fourth kind, tempered and made up by :a judi-
cious mixture of the former three. This more
excellent form he illustrates by a regular history
of the Roman Government, in which he finds an
approach to this theoretical perfection.; but
which, as we may perceive, is much more com-
pletely attained by the system ,of limited Mo-
narchy, established among ourselveS.
Of the Roman kings, Scipio particularly ex-
tolls Servius Tullius, because, in settling the
votes of the people, by centuries, he contrived
that:the proponderance of power should be placed,
not in number, but. in property.
" Ut sufFragla non in multitudiniS, sed in lu-
" cupletium potentate essent : curavitque, !pod
" sernper in republica tenendum est, ne pluri-
" mum laileant plurirni ;"

Which I translate, that no one may be ignorant
of so valuable a maxim. ale so disposed them,
" That the votes should not be in the power
but in that of the wealthy ;
ti ooMkll ctUed of
that, which should always be
utt*llitair
• observed in a Government, THAT THE OR EAT EST
" NUMBER SHOULD NUT NOSSES E GREATEST
" POWER."

I well know, Sir, that no maxim from human,
or even inspired, wisdom, will correct the madness
of those who run wild after their own theories ;
but for our advocates of what they call a Reforrra
of Parliament, here is a good sentence to revolve
and digost ; a sentence not proceeding from the
slave of a tyrant, but from a free Roman, under
the Republican State ; sanctioned both by his
wisdom and that of the most accomplished phi-
losopher, under the same Republic, namely,
Tutuus Ctccao.

VERBUM SAT.

•
*.* The preceding Letter came from an old
and valuable Correspondent, w nos, „04,,,u„k„.
lions cannot come\too often.

LIT rftpooL; j 9.S.—The CANNING Ctxa
bad a Special Meeting last night, for the purpose
of taking into consideration the desire expressed
by Mr. CANNING to relinquish the representation
or this town in Parliament, and to nominate
some Gentleman for the ensuing election. A
strong feeling of regret was expressed by all
the :Members at thu necessity which there ap.
peared for Mr. CANNING'S retiring from the re-
presentation, and it was unanimously carried
that Mr. HositrssoN should be respectfully
quested to allow himself to be put in noininatioa,
The I.2th of Febrttary is the day twned for the
election.

THE ESTABLISHED CHUItCH.

FOR THE SUN.

ON THE LAST NUMBER 9F THE EDINBURGH
REVIEW. '

Mn.' EDITOR—In these days of turbulence and
contention, when the most impudent and standerous
attacks are daily made on the established institu-
tions of the country, particularly on our venerable
Church and the Clergy, and sentiments the most
sordid and illiberal, uttered with shameless
effrontery and arrogance, are bringing daily dis-
grace' on the very name of Englishman, it is de.
lightful and most refreshing to the spirits to refer
occasionally to the writings of some of our most
celebrated authors, and to gather, as an antidote
to such sickening venom, their ideas 00 The sante,
or nearly similar, subjects. You, Sir, are probably
acquainted with the writings of So Mr. lENYNS,
and therefore need not to be told that among
them is to be found a Treatise of inestimable
value, entitled, a View of the internal Evidence
of the Christian Religion. In that treatise occur-
the following passages, which no one can read with-
out being struck with the candour, the modera-
tion, the good sense, and the liberality which they
evince :—" Many persons (says he) are inclined to
" think that every deviation from its primitive
" state (viz. that of Christianity) is a corruption.
" Christianity was at first preached by the poor
" and mean, in holes and caverns, under the iron
is rod of persecution, and therefore many absurdly
" conclude that any degree of wealth or power in'
" its Ministers, or of magnificence in its worship,
" are corruptions inconsistent with the genuine sim-
" plicity ofits original state, They are offended that
" modern Bishops should possess titles, palaces,
U revenues, and coaches, when it is notorious that
46 their predecessors, the Apostles, were despicable
64 wanderers, without houses or money, and
" walked on foot. The Apostles, indeed, lived
" in a state of poverty and persecution attendant
" on their particular situation, and the work
" which they had undertaken. This was their
" misfortune, but no part of their religion ; and
" therefore it can he no more incumbent on their
" successors to imitate their poverty and mean-
" ness, than to be whipped, imprisoned, and put
" to death, in compliance with their example.
" These are all but the suggestions of enzly and
cr malevolence, but no objections to these, fortu-
" nate alterations in Christianity and its profes-
s sors ; which, if not abused to the purposes of
" tyranny and superstition, are, in fact, no more
" than the 71CVCSSUIS and proper e.yects of its more
" prosperous situation."
Stleh,Sir, were the sentiments of that able and
good man ; and I have drawn the attention of
yourself and your Readers to them, because no
charge can lie against their author of professional
partiality or self-interest. lie was not a Clergy.
man, but a Layman, and for several years a
Member of Parliament. lie possessed a fine un-
derstanding and great natural talents, which he
cultivated anti improved by study and constant
literary pursuits. Ile was, as he says of himself,
neither an Enthusiast nor a Methodist ; neither
a beggar nor a madman : but, as his Biographer
relates of him," strict in the performance of roll-
" giont duties in public, and a constant practiser
" of them in private ; ever professing the greatest
" veneration fur the Church of England and its
" Government, as by law established, and hold-
" in g her Liturgy as the purest and most perfect
" foftn of public worship in any established
" church in Christendom," &c. &c.
What a contrast between such sentiments as
these and the animosity displayed against our
Ecclasiastical Establishment by the Edinburgh
Critics in the last number of the Jteview I Base,
indeed, is the malignity, and scandalous the
partiality, with which the writers in that Journal
have advocated the cause of the convicted libeller
of the Clergy of the Church of England ; pitiful,
too, and paltry in the extreme, are the jealousy
and envy of its privileges and endowments, which
they
r so evidentlyequally
i bettay. Hence, and from con-
sdeicontemptible, springs that
i:titt
avidity with which they seize every opportunity
of vilifying its sy.stem of instruction, and the
sound principle on which it acts, of conducting
natiotial education in consistencjr with the netion-
al religion. Neither do they stop here, but
their object now seems to be, to hold up to cen-
sure and derision fie most venerable persons in
our Church, in order that they may wound,
through them, that establishment, of which they