The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-19 00:00:00

the wild roaring of their tempestuous rage, or the
rapid rushing of a mighty fall.
Whoever has seen Mr. Burnet rise with quiet calm-
ness to address eager and anxious thousands, and marked
the immovable imperturbability he exhibits, must have
been struck by the evidently just confidence in himself,
which can only be founded on a deeply-grounded in-
ternal consciousness of power. And this is indeed his
main characteristic. He is a striking instance of that
most valuable of all mental qualities—habitual, con-
tinual, self-concentration—a perpetual reference to, and
self-exercise of, all the faculties of mind—a thorough
knowledge and practice of their powers and combina-
tions—and thus a constant consciousness cf their pre-
sence--and of their readiness to be aroused from the
quiet of dormant latency, to some steady and well-di-
rected Kurt. Mr. Burnet's is a mind possessed in an
extraordinary degree of vigour, strength, and firmness.
In the warmth of earlier days, it must have ardently
thrown itself into the labours of mental acquisition and
discipline. It is a mind which on all the objects that
fall within the range of its widely extended researches,
would exercise such a force of intellectual energy as at
once durably to enrich its stores, and lastingly to in-
crease its powers. Minds of this order will, even in the
lack of many of the ordinary opportunities of acquiring
knowledge, so act on, so appropriate, so assimilate all
they do acquire, and thereby infuse into their mental fa-
culties so much of force and vigour, that they have al-
ways an unfailing resource in original and independent
trains of thought. And when the habits of internal re-
flectiveness, and concentration of the mental power, have
had the effect of reducing them all to the most perfect and
complete subordination to the will—when the mind has
formed and fixed the tendency to go within itself for
the source of its power where every vigorous and well
trained faculty lies, in all the accumulated strength of
an advanced maturity, sustained by all the maturity
of experience—it can easily be imagined that a
mind so constitutes must have a rock of support, on
which it will always repose in the consciousness of an
intellectual might, bearing unmoved all the shocks of
excitement which confound and trouble ordinary minds
—calm, and not easily disturbed—as the fathomless
deep on which with tranquillity the vastest vessels sleep.
And this it is which gives Mr. Burnet an imposing
superiority over the mass of an audience—this it is
which invests him with that unruffled self-possession
which defies disturbance, and from the impregnable
heights of which he, with quiet ease, wields at pleasure
the power, of which the constant exercise has given
him the ever present consciousness, and controls the
multitude he addresses with a success as complete as it
is unlaboured.

This facility of public speaking, then, in Mr. Bur-
net is quite distinct from that excited fluency which
in many of the best speakers is rather the off-
spri-ig of their feelings than their minds. Mcn of this
stamp will be influenced mainly by the nature an('
extent of the exciting impulse they arc under at the
time. But minds disciplined into power by habitual
mental exercise, and internal concentration, will requ're
no other influence than the conviction of their judgments.
This will produce a steady equality of temperament—
an evenness—a tranquil uniformity of :rind—which
will elevate them far above the generality of natures.
In those minds, the stimulants of the feelings are with
difficulty excited, and when they are, are moved by,
instead of moving, the judgment, and never supersede,
but assist it. And of this class of mind is Mr. Burnet's.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING TAPERS Oy THIS DAT.
(From the Globe.)
As the da? of discussion and decision in Parliament
of the great national question, the ;Corn-law monopoly,
approaches, its advocates and opponents are employed
in marshalling their means, and strengthening their posi-
tion*. The fact that public opinion has, during the
last year, made rapid strides toward an entire revisal of
the system, with a view to a gradual or immediate aboli-
tion of the monopoly, is admitted by the journals hitherto
the most zealous in its defence ; while the advocates of
abolition refer to the crippled state of our manu-
factures in proof that the abolition of the prohi-
bitory duties on foreign corn is the only means of
averting the impending ruin which threatens our com-
mercial interests.

Those for whose protection the monopoly was pro-
fessedly established begin to open their eyes to the fal-
lacy of the pretences on which the system is made to
rest ; and in several districts the farmers refuse to sub-
mit to the injurious deception so long practised on them
by the landowners, who alone pocket the advantage (if
any), wrung no less from the farmers and labourers
than from the manufacturers and those in their employ.

(From the Standard.)
The Morning chronicle has reminded us that among
the subjects of discussion which the House of Commons
might properly prefer to the "privilege question," the
‘• Peel Club of Glasgow," or the comparative merits of
the " Bude lights and wax candles"--the operation of the
New Poor-law Bill holds no undistinguished place. Our
contemporary has discovered that the new code cannot go
on in company with the Cora-laws, and so far we agree
with it ; but we go a little further, for we say that the New
Poor-law code cannot go in company with the British
Constitution, or without. totally subverting the social
state of Great Britain, such as it has been for cen-
turies. It is well, however, to observe in the outset
that this detected incompatibility of the new Poor-law
Act with the Corn-laws comes suspiciously late. When
the former was under discussion the very reverse effect
was predicted. The landlords were told that nothing
but the new law could save their estates, the manufac-
turers were assured that by raising the character and
stimulating the working classes the proposed innovation
would render wages to them a matter of comparative
indifference, while a promise of greatly increased wages
was held out to the classes who must live by labour.
(From the Courier.)

The progress of the privilege claims may possibly ter.
minate advantageously to the public by clearing away
those obstructions to the discussion of questions which
are important to the nation at large. The fact begins
to be undeniable by the most zealous supporters of old
forms, that the laws relating to that indefinite offence
called libel should be corrected. It is perfectly evident
that if the House of Commons choose to protect its own
officers in the issue of papers, said to be intended for the
advantage of the whole of society, it will be equally ne-
cessary to extend the like protection to all who assist
in the promulgation of the documents which are deemed
so advantageous that they cannot be withheld unless at
a sacrifice.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took Lis seat on the
Woolsack at Five o'clock.
Mr. BROTHERTON and Mr. GIBSON CRAIG
brought up the Bolton Small Debts, the Plate Glass
Company's, the Edinburgh Gas Company's, and other
private Bills.
The Earl of HA DDINGTON presented a petition
from the County of Argyle, praying for an alteration
of the law of Church patronage.
The Marquis of NORMAN BY presented a petition
signed by 500 of the most opulent householders in
Stepney, praying for an amendment of the law relating
to Leet Juries. Also a petition from the Total Tem-
perance Society of Dundee, praying for an alteration
of the Corn-laws.
CHURCH EXTENSION.—CORN-LAWS.

Lord REDESDALE presented a petition from
Harford, in the county of Devon, in favour of Church
Extension, and petitions from the same place, and from
several other places in the counties of Devon and Dorset
against an alteration of the Corn-laws.

CHURCH PATRONAGE (SCOTLAND.)
The Duke of BUCCLEUCH presented petitions
from Edinburgh, Dundee, and numerous other places, in
favour of the principle of Non-intrusion. He also pre-
sented a petition from Dumfries, which he said was of
a very different character, as the petitioners prayed
the House to uphold the present ordinations of the
Church of Scotland, and they complained of the
course taken by the General Assembly as nothing
more or less than an attempt to separate the Church
from the State.

Lord HOLLAND rose to present two Lundred
petitions which had been entrusted to him--[The Noble
Lord was here interrupted 63,]--
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY, who rose
amidst some laughter, and upon Lord Holland's giving
way, said that he was intrusted with a petition of very
greatimportance on the same subject. It was signed
by 2,000 inhabitants of Belfast, who, considering the
close relationship between the north of Ireland and
the people of Scotland, could not behold without regret
the d:ssensions which were now rending the Church cf
Scotland. The petitioners prayed for the interference
of the House to conciliate the differences.
Lord HOLLAND said that in the absence of his
Noble Friend the Marquis of Breadalbane he had to
present 200 petitions, the majority of which were in
favour of the principle of non-intrusion. Some of tiles,
added to that prayer complaints of the p:oceed-