The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-04 00:00:00

portion of the patronage sometimes as caprice or
pleasure dictated, but generally " to the chief
heritors of the respective parishes." These
gifts he would annul by an Act of Par-
liament, without seeming at all aware that
on the same principle the houses of BeJtbrd and
Abercorn, and many other houses too, might be
stripped of vast estates conlin-red on them at the
caprice or pleasure of an unmitigated tyrant.
Looking, therefore, at the difficulty of settling
the Kirk to the satisfaction of the unreasonable
party who now dominate in the Scotch Church,
we would advise Mr. STEUART to leave them to
themselves, and follow the prudent conduct of
Lord MELBOURNE, who knows that he could not
introduce any Bill without increasing to a Vast
extent the hostility that already exists between
the clergy of the Established Church and all
classes of Dissenters. The following is the out-
line of the Bill :

I.—To repeal the Act of the 10th of Queen Anne,
called the Patronage Act ; and so much of the Act of the
3d of William and Mary as is inconsistent with this Act.
lI.—To abolish patronage, as at present exercised in
Scotland, whether by her Majesty or by lay patrons.
I I I.—To vest the right of presentations in the fieritors
and Kirk-sessions (the Heritors to have a 101, qualifica-
tion ; the Kirk-sessions to be elected by the congregation).
IV.—The presentee to preach before the congregation.
and a call to be moderated in by :he Presbytery ; the call
to he subscribed by male communicants, or male persong
ellitled to sealing ordinances.
V.—lf the call be subscribed by an absolute majority of
those entitled, the Presbytery to proceed to the trials ; if
only a minority of the whole subsetibe the call, time to
be affonled fur objections being lodged, and the auffi-
eiency of the call to be judged of by the Church Courts.
Vl.—The General Assembly to make the necessary
regulations for moderating in calls, and for making up
the roll of communicants or persons entitled to sealing
ordinances. Copy thereof to be transmitted to Secretary
of State.

VII.— Act not to commence or take effect until it has
been certified to the Quten in Council that the General
Assembly has passed an Act for vesting the election of
elders in male communicants, and persons entitled to seal-
ing ordinances. Thereafter the commencement of the
Act to be proclaimed.
Vlll.—Provision to suspend all pending suits for twelve.
months after the passing of this Act ; if any new sumn,ons
is raised, Act to be pleaded, and proceedings to be barred
for twelve months.

IX.—All suits to terminate upon the Act coming into
operation, and presentations to be made anew• under the
authority of this Act.
X.—Clauses to provide compensation to Patrons may,
if necessary, be here aided.
XI. —Act to remain in force so long as the Act of As-
sembly for reforming Kirk Sessions remains unrepealec.

The settlement of the. Eastern question re-
moves every pretext for persisting in the absurd
and ruinous plan of fortifying Paris, proposed by
M. THIERS, and supported by the present French
Government. It forms a complete and trium-
phant answer to the gasconade of the ex-Premier
about the secret designs of the Allies who
signed the Treaty of July. It clearly and un-
answerably demonstrates that England had no
selfish views—that she was actuated by no feel-
ings or motives hostile to the glory and peace of
France. This demonstration is made in time to
spare misguided and inflamed France the enor-
mous expenses to which the erection of those
bastiles of liberty, detached forts, must cost her.
And incurably blind must be the French
people indeed, if, after learning how easily the
Eastern question has been settled,- they do not
open their eyes to the horrors of the precipice
over which M. THIERS and the Government is
now driving them. But fortify Paris, and the
enslavement of France is complete. Under the
guns of the fortresses will expire that liberty
to obtain which France passed thuough the bloody
ordeal of two revolutions. Commerce, which
reserves her richest treasures for the land in
which she enjoys the greatest freedom, will soon
desert a capital environcd with the frowning
strongholds of military and regal despotism.
Sciences, fine arts, and letters will follow in the
wake of freedom and commerce. The men now so
clamorous for walls and fortresses will be the first
to feel that, instead of raising a rampart against
the approach of an allied hostile army, they have
been putting chains upon their own limbs, and
gags in their own mouths. The censorship of
the press will be performed by an expert gunner,
and even freedom of thought will be regulated
by the distance of the thinker'i domicile
from the nearest fortress. But M. TRIERS wants
the walls to justify to the Chambers his im-
mense armaments carried on without a legisla-
tive sanction, and likewise to dispose the KING
to admit him once more to his councils ; and to
these personal objects the liberty, and the moral
and physical improvement of France, arc basely
and treacherously sacrificed.

The rejection of General SCHNEIDER'S amend-
ment on the Fortifications of Paris Bill by a ma-
jority of sixty-one votes, disposes us to believe
that the Bill, as prepared by the Committee,
will be adopted. General SCHNEIDER'S amend-
ment embodied the proposal of Marshal
SDI:LT for erecting detached forts without any
wall of circumvallation. When put to the vote
on Saturday it was rejected, 175 voting for it, and
236 voting against it. On Monday the debate
was resumed, when the following three articles
of the Bill were adopted by large majorities:—
Att. 1. of the Government project of law, as approved
of by the Committee, was put to the vote, and carried by
a large majority :—it was as follows :--" A sum of
140,000,000 f. is specially allotted to the works of the for-
tifications of Paris."
Art. 2. 'nese works comprise-1. A continuous line
of enclosure, embracing the two banks of the Seine, ba.-
tioned and terraced with ten metres of cncarpment fronted
with masonry. 2. And exterior casemated works.
Art. 3. The funds allotted to these works are to be
employed simultaneously towards the execution of the en-
closed and exterior works, and divided between different
estimates, and in proportions determined in the subsequent
articles.

These articles embrace the whole substance of
the Bill which, if passed and carried into full
effect, will reduce the capital of European re-
finement to a level with Strasburgh, or any other
fortified town on the frontier. But it is useless
to remonstrate with a people bent upon the de-
struction of their own independence.
The Commerce states that the ball at the Tui-
leries, on Wednesday, presented a greater show
of English than of French uniforms, and that one
English officer had the bad taste to wear a
Waterloo medal. We can scarcely believe that
any officer in the British army could be guilty
of such a Piece of braggart insolence as this. No
brave man, with a spark of generous and manly
feeling, could thus abuse the distinguished hos-
pitality of the KING Of the FRENCH, and thus
offer a studied and cowardly insult to a nation,
where it was impossible it could be resented.
This man, whoever he was, should be known.
The chances are fifty to one that he never fought
at Waterloo, and that he is not more a braggart
than a coward.

The Journal des Debats of Monday devotes
five columns to an account of the relations be-
tween France and Buenos Ayres.

The Chamber of Peers sat on Monday to de-
bate upon a number of Bills of local interest.
It was reported," says the Cour rier Francais, " in the
diplomatic salons of Paris on Saturday evening, that Lord
Granville had been recalled by his Government, and re-
placed by Lard Clarendon in the post of Ambassador of
Great Britain in France.

Most of the editors of the journals who published the
letters attributed to King Louis Philippe had been inter-
rogated by the Judge of Instruction. The Marquis de
Larochejaquelin, who was supposed to be the possessor of
the originals, and M. Auguste Johanet, had been likewise
summoned to appear before that Magistrate.
The Messayer states that the editor of the Gazette de
Fiance had served a citation on the editor of the illessager
to appear on the 12th of March to answor for having
stated that the letters published by the Gazette, {Airport-
ing to have been written by his Majesty Louis Philippe,
when Duke of Orleans, were false.
M. Esquires, the author, and M. Legallois, the printer
of the Evangile du Peuple, were tried for libel on Satur-
day at the Assize Court. M. Legallois w;,s acquitted,
and M. Esquires, having been found guilty by the Jury,
was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, and to pay
a fine of 500 francs.
The Observateur Suisse of the 28:11 states positively
that the Pope's Nuncio in Berne entered a formal protest
on the 21st against the suppression of the Argovian con-
vents. The cantons of Uri, Schweitz, and Unterwalden
had likewise reproved the measure, as contrary to the 12th
article of the Federal Compact, and called for an extraor-
dinary meeting of the Diet !o Inquire into the affair. Zug,
Zurich, Neufchatel, and Friburg would, it was expected,
address a similar application to the Vorort.
The Toulonnais of the 27th announces that Marshal
Valve has caused apartments to be taken for him at an
hotel at Ayeres, where he intends to pass the winter with
his family, on account of his grauddaughter, who is is ill
Lealth.