The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-17 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.

Lain and very few exceptions," of the Bill of Mr. Kelly,
yet deprecates its further consideration during the present
Session, and tbercfore the possibility of its becoming the
law of the land for another year. It laments the refusal
of the Honourable and Learned Member to comply with
the request of the Attorney-General for postponement, on
the ground of the injurious consequences of too " rapie"
legislation, and the inducement to Members, from• the
exhaustion of protracted sittings and an advanced
period of the Session, to " prefer a railway 'speed to the
more slow and dignified course of careful examination
and refle..tioa" in the discussion of the separate clauses of
the measure. If the Bill of Mr. Kelly involved any
new or crudely digested principle we could under-
stand the force of these objections and concur in the 'mes-
sey for delay, b.it although now in a more complete form,
and with a mere masterly band than hitherto embodied
and presented before the House, the principle, or rather
perhaps the preamble, of the Bill itself has been proved,
and accepted as proved, for years past both in Parliament
and throughout the country. The most eminent men of
all parties, so rarely found in conjinction on other ques-
tions, on this at least base displayed a unanimity laudable,
if not surprising, and where the main paint is conceded on
all hands, and therefore the great stumbling block sur-
mounted, which in attempts at legislation is the primary
and particular cause of obstruction and delay, the debut a- •
tion of details and technicalities is of importance so secon-
dary as surely not to oecrtask even the waning energies of
Members anxious for release from business auclior the case
of the long vacation.
( From the Morning Chronicle.)
As long as the Canada Government Bill was before
Parliament, no one had the boldness to come forward and
suggest any alternative measure. The Duke of Welline-
ton himself, strongly opposed as he-was to the principle of
the union, sl,runit from the responsibility of proposing any
other plan for the future government of the Canadas. Nor
is this to be wondered at, seeing that the only other possi-
ble alternative was to propose the indefinite continuance of
sword government in the lower province. The question
was distinctly this: not whether thc• experiment of the
union was attended with hazard and difficulty, but whetlit r
it was attended with hiss hazard, less difficulty, and less
plain and manifest evil and violation of ail sound prin-
ciple, than the open and undisguised establishment of a
despotism in a large, populous, and important province,
bordering upon an ambitious republic, and numberi:ig
among its inhab'taws a laree and inercaing pro; o tont ef
free-born British subj eta. We said at the time that
this was distinctly the alternative, and that opposition
to the union was one and the same thing, as a pre-
posal to establish a despotic form of government in
Lower Canada as a permanent and final system. Now,
when the bill has passed eirough all its stages; the
Tories come forward to challenge the rispousibility
which they shrunk from as long as tin re was a chance of
being called upon to make good their words, and bodly
avow their wish that the very form and semblance of a
representative Government bad been abolished for ever
in Lower Can tda. The motive was obvious. It would
never do to allow the Whigs to reap the credit of pa-
cifying Canada. Something at all hazards mu•t be done
to prevent the Government from gaining the nr cession of
reputation to which they are justly entitled, for having
brought iu a measure for the settlement .of a most d iii-
cult and important question, so satisfactory, so states-
manlike, and so conclusive, as to command ohe support.
even of
.their habitual opponents.
(From the Times.)
The minute of the Committee of Council on Education,
dated the 15th of July. which we publish in another column,
evinces the tardy consent of the Government to yield to
the Prelates of the Church of England that influence in
the work of education to which they are constitutionally
entitled. It also shows a laudable readiness on the part of
those high dignitaries to silence the preposterous claims
of laymen and partisans who affected to know what the
Church needed better than those who are her authorized
representatives. The National Society sleeps in the
shade ; and the diocesan boards will find their schools
built with the public money, subjected to the inspection of
men recommended for that purpose by the Committee of
Council, with the concurrence of the Archbishops. How-
ever sacrilegiOut this compact may appear to those who
look upon the National Society as a college for the
propagation of. the faith, we doubt not that the veto
of the Archbishops on the inspectors, and the system of
reports to be presented by those gentlemen to the Cern.
! mittee of Privy Council, a duplicate of which shall be sent
to the Archbishop of the province, and another copy to the
Bishop of the diocese, though simply fur his information,
will afford to the great orthodox and Conservative body in
this country a sufficient guarantee that the joint influence
of Church and State will be exerted to extend and improve
the instruction of the people of England. The time, we
hope, is now arrived at which the progress of education
rests on the energies of the parochial clergy, and the diffa-
shin of sound technical views throughout the country by
such means as the Parliamentary vote may provide, the
Government adopt, and the Church approve. We have
only one question to ask. respecting the arrangement.
Through what hen& are the sums granted •to be tran -
mitted to the schools? 7 hrough those of the National
School, or direct from the Privy Council ?