The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-09 00:00:00

rable error. But it was not Sir Robert Peel alone to
whom on Irish affairs the Recorder of the betrayed
Protestant Corporation of Dublin was for a long time a
sort of oracular authority. The Duke of Wellington
and Lord Lyndhurst unhappily placed too much faith
in the efficacy of his " specifics" to remedy the distem-
pered state of Ireland—a distempered state, the result not
of too little, but of too much concession to a bigotted and
insolent faction. The able speeches of Sir C. Wether-
ell and Professor Butt, of the Dublin University, at
the bar of the House of Lords, appear to have first let
in some light upon the Duke of Wellington's mind
as to the real nature and inevitable consequences of
the surrender to a Papal ascendancy of the Irish cor-
porations, which the House of Lords was then about
to perpetrate. But instructed and even alarmed, as
the Duke of Wellington evidently was, by the speeches
of the tmelearned Advocates of the Dublin corpora-
tion, he, eventually, declined to retrace his steps, and
even chose to take Lord Normanby's unsupported as•
sertions against reasoning that could not be contro-
verted, and facts that could not be denied. The re-
sult is known. O'Connell's great " job" was carried,
and so was Mr. Shaw's also. The former pretends to
be dissatisfied : but he laughs in his sleeve at the folly
of his adversaries. As to Mr. Shaw, may we ask, wio
the Protestant University of Dublin be:so base or supine
as ever to return him again to Parliament ?
(From the-Morning Advertiser.)
The last Bedford Mercury contains the report of
the foundation of a new Mechanics' Institution in that
district. We always derive the greatest pleasure from
the reports of the Mechanics' Institutes, philosophical
societies, and scientific institutions, established in all the
provinces of the country, but more especially from
those established throughout the embrace of our pro-
vincial districts. We hope to see them ramifying and
propagating themselves through every corner of the
island ; nor, seeing what we have seen, do we greatly
beginnings they may originally
e seen the humblest beginnings
and influential associations.
swell
wpa
rreielni from n ebn
et
ocwahuiasi
important
pwore humbletahnatv
These societies take the lead in agitating the great
questions which ameliorate human existence, and in
imparting the influence of their moral example to the
onward impulse of universal mind. This is an object
too sacred and too important to be melted away in
the breath of, party spirit. It has been sneeringly said,
that " a little learning is:a dangerous thing"—that a little
knowledge may do a man harm. This is a false prin-
ciple, though it has grown into a proverb. All know-
ledge is an accumulation of facts which establish truth,
cad it is better to have a little of that truth than to
have none at all. The fears entertained by the exclu-
sive classes of its diffusion are most irrational ; the
diffusion is, in fact, their safety—it is the safety-valve
of the social engine. As the people possess more '
mind and more information, they will dislike and deli
cline all appeals to brute force. That is the only force
to be apprehended, and that is only a force employed
by the uneducated ignorance of the popular masses.
When changes occur—and changes must occur as
society progresses towards its final goal—they will take
place among OH educated people in orderly accordance
with law, and in tranquil conformity with the dictates
of neighbourly kindness and of good sense. There are
other advantages connected with these institutions,
with which the mercantile and trading prosperity of the
whole country is intimately bound up. The importance
of promoting scientific knowledge among our me-
chanics is essentially necessary to England's successful
competition with the active inslustry of foreign mar-
kets. Such knowledge is requisite to maintain the
ascendancy of our commerce. Let the mind of Eng-
land be cultivated as well as her plains, and the day
will not be far distant when she will .reach to an incal-
culable height of power, of wealth, and of moral great-
ness. All the scientific elements of this great result
are now in active operation. But ii must be by the
combination of educated mind with social morals that
we shall procure and secure this future greatness for
our country. By their union, and by their instru-
mentality, the mightiest triumphs may be accom-
p:ished, and so impelled and directed it is impossible
to calculate the extent to which the national power
and the commercial prosperity of England may ulti-
mately attain. Let us reflect, moreover, that while
we promote our own commercial advantages by pro-
moting the scientific knowledge of the artisan, we
are diffusing innumerable benefits to the furthest
bounds of the earth, and enlightening., civilizing, and
Christianizing, by our commerce, the benighted hea-
then and the untamed savage, in the darkest corners
of the earth.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Of the French Journals we do not know which is
most violent and virulent against M. Thiers, the Na-
tional or the Journal des Debats, the organ of the Re-
publican or of the ultra-Conservative party. Never
was a French Minister placed in a more trying or more
serous position—he sees all the abundant elements of
anarchy and sedition working and heating around him
at home. He sees the alternative of war or humilia-
tion menace him from abroad ; whilst those who should
most zealously rally to him in the hour of danger—
that is, the old Government and Court party—these
attack hint with a fury which shows their predominant
feeling to be joy at his downfal. At such a moment
it would be ungenerous to swell the interested or illibe-
ral cry against M. niers ; for, after all, the difficulties
are not of his making. The policy on the part of
France, which has led to her estrangement from
England is not of M. Thiers's invention. He
was forced to take circumstances and the national feeling
us he found them. He cannot control either, however
be may guide, or moderate, or give reins to their fury,
according as the necessities of his situation and of diplo-
macy require. As to the Republicans and ultra-Li-
berals, their cry is the pusillanimity of the Cabinet, the
tardiness of the French fleet in not attacking, of the
French army in not passing the frontier, of French di-
plomacy in notldefying Europe. These fiery denuncia-
tions stir up and inflame the masses, and have awakened
in that portion of the French mind which is ignorant of
the question and of the relative position and interests of
France in the question—that is to say ninety-nine
hundredths of the nation—an irritation which craves
for foreign war, and, in default of it, for intestine
troubles to allay it. The lower classes of the capital and
of Lyons are in a most dangerous state of excitement. The
Ministry treats these serious symptoms with great vigil-
ance and great forbearance, calming the effervescence,
arresting the ringleaders, and sparing the mob. At this
the Court journal raises the cry of treason, of culpable
remissness. It denounces niers, as it would Espar-
tero, for tolerating sedition, and would have the thou-
sands of artisan: ridden down and sabred by gendarmerie
on the eve, or the apparent eve, of a war. One can
safely say that if MM. Persil and Gisquet and the Con-
servatives had the management of the Justice and Police
departments at present, the hitherto harmless show of
riot would have been either provoked into a triumphant
insurrection, or else quenched in blood. They would, in
fact, play the game in Paris which they advise and ap•
plaud in Madrid. Placed between these parties, the posi-
tion of M. Thiers is most difficult, and every step he takes
is denounced by one side as pusillanimous, by the other
as headstrong. The Radicals accuse him of crouch-
ing to Prince Metternich ; the Conservatives accuse
him of being the cause of the war by not having jumped
at the supposed proposals of the Austrian envoy in
May last. At a meeting of the Peers during the ex-
amination of Louis Bonaparte, several Memlwers of the
Noble Chamber, to which, by the by, M. Thiers is
very unpalatable, accused him in one breath of having
issued the warlike ordonnances to provoke Europe, and
then of not having armed with celerity to meet its hos-
tilities. The same diversity and intensity of censure
now appears on the subject of the note recently pre-
sented by the British Minister in Paris. This famous
note was unfortunately anticipated. French imagina-
tion set to work upon it, and expectations were raised
that it was to bo nothing less than a disavowal of
the treaty of July, and proposals for a totally new
arrangement. A moment's reflection would have shown
the impossibility of such a declaration on the part of ono
of the Four Powers. The note is all that it could have
been ; and being valunteered, as it has been, ought to
have been taken as a strong indication of a wish to con-
ciliate. The Radicals of course denounce the note, and
the pusillanimity of listening to it. The Conservative
writers eagerly hope that M. Thiers would decidedly
reject the note, whilst at the same time it might offer
them something to take up, and something that they
might blame Thiers for refusing. Thiers, however, has
baffled them; and although they were last week a peace
party, they now shout out the war-cry louder than
Thiers. They are, in fact, determined to do whatever
he does not do.

Theatre, in ROYetolFerT, H1:12" —_—_
—The little volume in question, one of the luckiest hits in
exactly six weeks before the first night literature, appeared on the r'e.opening of Drury-lane
started by the late Mr. Ward, secretary to the theatre,
REJECTED ADDRESSES."
Eagerly adopting the mur., ostion, James and his brother
lost not a moment in carrying it into execution. It was
arranged what authors the should respectively imitate:
Horace left London on a they
to Cheltenham, executed
havihaving
gof been
performance.casually
I:igimrtoiloe opening,nofthetask, and returned to town a few days
before
when each
pear requisite. These, however (for haste was urgentlye
necessary, and neither of th
parties disposed to be very
wsubmitted hitshpaatp
mightta,ip-
other, for
any
omissions
e
or improvements
critical), seldom exceeded verbal alterations, or the addi.
tion of a few lines.—James Smith's Memoirs, 6.c.
AIR. GEACII.----'
q
his infatuated man, who was
lately convicted of forger', and sentenced to 20 years'
tuansportation, arrived in Bristol on Wednesday on his i
way to the Stirling
Castle hulk at Dev.mport. He left
on Tinwsday, and, having been subjected to the usual dis-
cipline of the gaol, said, on leavingj it, that he would ra-
ther endure 40 years' transprtation than six months' inn.
,
prisonme3t therein.—Bath Journal.
The Southampton frigate, with the flag of Ad-
miral Sir D. King, the new Commander-in-Chief, South
America, has passed down Channel on her way to Ply-
mouth, where she will be paid, and complete her stores,
&c,—Hampshire Independent.
The Earl of Yarborough was obliged to put into
Plymouth on Tuesday last, ale Kestrel yacht having lost
I,er 'alma topmast, owing
to tz:e rough weather, from
Torbay.
• '