The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-21 00:00:00

SFI RIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(PROM THE DAILY PAPERS of YESTEkDAY.)
(From the Globe.)
The dissensions on vital questions among the Tories
in Parliament, and the abuse and contumely poured on
the Tory leaders by the principal journals o the party,
had long shown but too plainly that there w s " some-
thing rotten in the state of Denmark." it had be-
come a mere supererogatory undertaking for the Liberal
journals to expose the fallacies and inconsistences
of the Opposition in Parliament. The task was taken
out of their hands. The schisms were too nume-
mins and too wide to be concealed from the public eye.
I 'The smouldering enmity which the ultra-Tories had
, long cherished against Sir Robert Peel and the more
reasonable and moderate of those who recognised him
as their chief, could no longer be restrained. Their
organs ceased, i❑ a great degree, from their attacks on
the Members and measures of the Government, to
wreak their malignity on their own chiefs. They col-
lected and concentrated the venom of their nature, to
give energy and effect to their attacks on the conduct
and motives of the very men whom they formerly
' lauded as the only statesmen whose counsels could pre-
serve the Constitution, and save the country from ruin!
That the Liberals should derive fresh confidence
from this state of things i❑ the enemy's camp was only
natural : that these proofs of weakness—the reproaches,
upbraidings, and objurations, the doleful predictions
of approaching ruin to the party, through the " apos-
tacy and treachery" of those to whom its interests
had been committed—should be held up as de-
monstrative of the utter absence of that union, with-
out which an Opposition may be powerful to annoy
and obstruct a Government, but must be utterly in-
competent to conduct the affairs of the country—was
a duty at once imperative and pleasing. We confess
we have applied ourselves, con amore, to the subject.
It is, therefore, with no small satisfaction that we find
the Times at length entering the field. In an article
of enormous length, but loose in reasoning, and far
from exhilarating in its conclusions, the " Leading
Journal" attempts to prove that though things are not
so satisfactory as they might be, yet they might be
worse.

(From the Standard.)
We rejoice exceedingly at the recent reception which
his Majesty Louis Philippe appears to have met with,
both at Calais and Boulogne. Had France but allowed
herself the benefit of his sound sense and estimable qua-
lities of heart, there would have been no ground for the
ill-will which has been so designedly, and we may say,
wickedly created between her and England ; nor would
his Majesty's friendly disposition to this country
have ever become matter of the slightest question.
It will be seen by the letter of our Boulogne Cor
respondent, in another column, that the remark made in
English by his Majesty Louis Philippe to Mr. Coates,
of theatrical celebrity, in reply to the demonstration of
that gentleman's respect for his Majesty, that whilst he
lived peace should be maintained, verifies our impression
that we are indebted for the whole of the present ex•
citement to the manoeuvres of M. Thiers. It is said
that his Majesty, with the good taste and good feeling
which have hitherto distinguished him, exclaimed in a
very loud voice, " Eternal prosperity to England and to
France ; eternal peace between them ; and I promise
you that WHILE I LIVE YOU SHALL lIAVE PEACE 1"
What will M. Thiers and his Parisian Badauds say to
this ?

(From the Courier.)
The Chronicle, in a repetition of the silly stuff about
Thorogood and Church-rates, with which it occa-
sionally shows its contempt for the understanding
of its readers, displays as profound a knowledge
of ecclesiastical history as of ecclesiastical power.
The following is this sage's last exhibition of his
profundity :—" The churchwardens (he says) cannot
make a valid rate in defiance of the votes of a ma-
jority of the rate-payers in vestry assembled. That
is the law. The parish is said to be legally chargeable
with the repairs of the church. The responsibility, it
may be replied, is merely one of the impositions of
priestcraft, the history of which can be distinctly traced.
Up to a period within what lawyers call ' the memory
of man,' the sustentation of the fabric of the church
was a burden upon the tithes. The priests shuffled it
upon the parish, by the sordid pervcrsioa of their spi-
ritual influence." Sir William Blackstone says that
these officers can make the rate, and that the Spiritual
Courts can enforce the payment. Older writers, con-
densing cases in point, lay down in substance that the
Spiritual Court may compel the parishioners to
,repair
their church, and excom:nunicate them until it b 3 re-
paired. If it can thus deprive the whole body of the
parishioners of the powers which they, or any of them,
might otherwise exercise as subjects of the realm, it can
compel refractory individuals to obedience to the law ;
but, as the censure of excommunication carries with it
such a tremendous penalty as outlawry, it is not resorted
to, but the milder process of distraint is adopted. As
to the Chronicle's history of Church-rates, there pro-
bably was never so great a want of acquaintance with a
subject contained in so small a space.