The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-12 00:00:00

TAE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 12. IP4I.

In order to keep the subject of the fitness of
the clergy to educate the people before the
public we will now further remark that the
whole body are united together by a corporate
principle which makes them continually struggle
to ensure the supremacy of their order. Other
men strive to get individually to the top of so-
ciety, and, all trying, no one very far distances
his competitors, but all get somewhat up.
The priest, however, strives to secure the ascen-
dancy of his order, and to do that he necessarily
tramples other men under foot. He very natu-
rally desires, in order to attain this end, that the
education of all the youth of the community
should be placed in his hands; but it is
not the business of statesmen who wish to keep
the priestly power in subjection, and still less is
it the business of laymen, to assist the incorpora-
tion of priests in securing such a supremacy. In
Spain and Italy the priests have long used their
power to control the education of the society, and
keep the laymen subservient to them ; and un-
less we wish England to become as destitute of
great and skilful men as are modern Italy and
Spain, we shall carefully keep the priests from
controlling education here as they have controlled
it there.

We know that it is supposed that they
can teach morality better than any other
race of men. That supposition is not
confirmed either by their lives or their tenets,
At present the morality which is most requir,,ld
is a restraint on greediness. We want to have
the doctrine enforced, that wealth to be enjoyed
must be honestly obtained. It is, above all
things, requisite now to teach a respect for pro-
perty—not that property which the State creates
in favour of one man by taxing another, but the
natural right of property; so that the State, and
all concerned, shall regard it as a deriliction of
duty to take a single farthing from him to whom
it naturally belongs. Now this most necessary
morality it is impossible the clergy can teach,
for their whole lives are a violation of it;
and the State Church, with its tithes, exists in de-
fiance of it. Tithes are a tax which the State
levies on the food of the people for the advan-
tage of the priesthood. They are so much of
the annual produce of industry forcibly—that is
by law—taken from the people to give to the
priests ; and, as long as they maintain and incul-
cate the propriety of so endowing them, as
long as they exhibit their present greediness
after gain, it is impossible that they should be
able to teach the people this most necessary
morality.
In our former article on this subject we showed
that the education of the priesthood is on prin-
ciple chiefly directed to acquiring a knowledge
of a narrow portion of antiquity. No man con-
tends that that portion of antiquity comprises a
complete code of morals for modern times.
Though the principles of morality may then have I
been laid down,- they require to be worked out
and adapted to present circumstances. And it
is to be remarked, that the morality of mankind,
whether it be for the better or the worse, has
continually undergone a change.
Infanticide, that was allowed in antiquity, is now
rigorously and universally condemned. Slavery,
though universally practised in ancient times, is
here no longer tolerated; and so much alive are
we to its odiousness, that we have no toleration
for those who inflict it. In antiquity human life
was disregarded, and almost all the legislators of
the olden time, from MOSES down to the early
Parliaments of GEORGE lll.'s reign, deemed that
they might cut off human beings for any and
every offence. It is a question whether the
laws ofDRACO were more bloody than the laws of
Mos Es. But now we doubt whether it is just or not
to take away the life even of that very man who
has shed blood. In early times, spoliation was
as common and as authorised as bloodshed, and
but only a few years have passed since lifting
cattle was a kind of authorised species of rob-
bery. It may be supposed, therefore, that a
similar progress is making as to theft, which we
have traced as to shedding blood. Respect for
property is no virtue of the savage or the semi-
savage. Thus the morality of mankind is under-
going a gradual, a successive, and a
great
change.
Now the priests, who fix their attention almost
exclusively on the past, cannot be the authors of
this modern morality, and, not being its authors,
must be opposed to it, and be only reluctantly
driven to teach it. Hence we find them slow in

____ • _
assisting to procure the extinction ofslavery, the
abolition of the punishment of death,. or the ge-
. . .

neral amelioration of the criminal code. Hence

we had them as long as possible the opponents of
educating the people, except teaching them their

catechism. Hence we find them at this day, while

reflecting men are condemning the immorality of
taxation for the benefit of individuals, also abso-

lutely vindicating the legal plunder of the people.
Because morality, like science, is subjected to
change—we say improvement—the priests are

no more competent to teach it to the people than
they are to teach astronomy, if they believe on
the authority of the Bible that the earth stands
still, and the sun goes round and round it. The
morality which the people require to be taught, is,
if we may so express ourselves, the common mo-
ralitythat which is now advocated by those of
our race who have attained the highest eminence
and can see the furthest:; and that morality, the
priesthood, who, as a body, insist on remaining
below, and keep down as long as they can, are
not qualified either to discover or to teach.

IThe Paris Journals oftriday and S 3' aturda -
have all reached us. The Commerce states that
one of the cashiers of a Paris bank has run of
Erns March,
carrying with him a million of francs. The ba,ak”
iin consequence, has stopped payment. The .
no political news in these papers :-- xe Is
o,,itear;aenlyernthraseati:t
A private letter from Arzew, in Africa, dated 2.5t.h,
contains the following details : All the Ertl, ~.,
.f '3 ...,avalry
which had appeared near the Cheliff, and had r
ened by a demonstration the garrison
_of M
passed near that town, has just received ort . ,
ere to proceed to
reverse of the chain of the Little Atlas from tcalah to Mascara,
which country it is exclusively instructe
,4 to protect. Ben
Nonna, s, the Khalifa of Tlemecen, is alor , ordered to protect
the tribes of tilt) West, and command c•
t 415,.
swine thousand ill- 1
_,

Letters and Papers from India, with news from
China, still continue to reach us. The conduct

an expansion of trade which will make the of Plenipotentiary ELLIOT has excited the
strength ofthe country commensurate to the public deepest indignation not only among the British
burdens. Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in his speech on merchants at Macao, but throughout the whole
Monday, declared against the monopolies ; and of British India. In another part of The Sun,
he will be constrained to act on the principles of under the head "Chinese News," will be found
that speech. If his doing so offend the Whig land- a letter from Bombay, dated the Ist of March,
lords, they may be assured his successor in office, which well expresses the mortification and dis-
be he who he may, will act on those principles; gust with which British merchants and British
for it is more than the head of a Minister is subjects of every class in the East, have learned
worth to involve the Government in distress and the conditions of the convention which the luck-
difficulties for the pecuniary advantage of the less Plenipotentiary is negotiating with the Go-
landowners. vernment of the Celestial Empire. The same
The Ministers, and all who claim the character Journal publishes a remonstrance, " issued by
of statesmen, will remember, though some few a commercial firm of very high standing at Can-
landlords may not, that the whole system of ton," which embodying, as it does, most of our
legislation and government is discredited, that objections to the convention, we subjoin, para-
the peace of the country is endangered, that all graph by paragraph, for the more correct infor-
property is perilled by the impossibility of in- mation of our readers. The remonstrance corn-
dustry meeting all the demands which legislation mences as follows :
for behoof of individuals, and for behoof of the As residents in China, we cannot but express our extreme
and unqualified disapprobation of the basis of our commercial
pearritoorfoCffiheina,
treaty as now promulgated to us.
State, makes on it. In fact, the whole parapher-
nalia of the State exists only to protect industry, In the first place, there seems to be no expression on the
gret which thearsc shbhinowhn either by the recent edicts of its su.
the parent of all justly acquired property; and if
industry be not protected, the State no longer P tesee PGloevneiprnotmenentitaroyu's
hctirtcoulamra,koef
known,
answers answers its functions, and men will say it for acts of aggression which have followed one another in speedy
ought to be revolutionized. The Peers
succession for the last two years in particular. Neither does
and the Commons, the Ministers, anti
, there seem to be the „slightest security for the future." In
fact, in this point, our position, as compared with our inter-
the Judges, the Sovereign and the Clergy, course prior to our leaving Canton, has retrograded.
exist as such, not for themselves, but for the We stated in The Sun of Saturday, that so far
protection of the industrious community. But from expressing regret, the Chinese Plenipoten-
of what avail are the ministers of religion to teach tiary KESHEN had, four days after signing the
morality, the Sovereign to wield the sword, the Convention, caused an edict to be circulated, in
Judge to decide disputes about property, or the which he represented the English as "rebel bar-
Ministers to guide the policy of the country, if barians," who had submitted to the laws of
industry be ground down to the dust, have little the empire, and, through him, implored the par-
or nothing for itself, while it is unable to meet don of the " Son of Heaven." Thus, in the very
the many demands made on it by the Legislature ? hour of victory, the Chinese heaped fresh in-
Some excuse might be found for such a state cults upon the insult-devoted head of Captain
of things had the land been exposed to a foreign ELLIOT. While he was crowing like a chanti-
' invasion, to a succession of famines, or to the de.. deer over his vast exploits in the Canton
vastation of a mighty whirlwind ; but when no River, and, in the exuberance of his joy,
natural disasters have fallen on the country, lauding the good faith and amicable inten-
when, after years of peace, during which tions of the petticoated KESHEN, that can
all the natural principles of great national ning diplomatist was stigmatizing him to his
prosperity have been in full operation, to countrymen as the leader of a horde of
find industry deprived of its due reward, and the piratical barbarians, whom a single word reduced
State not fully supplied, reflects indelible dis- to obedience. This very fact speaks volumes re-
grace on the whole system of government. specting the "security for the future." If an
Statesmen must know, though ignorant parsons Imperial Mandarin could calculate so accurately
and ignorant landlords may not know, that a upon his ability to humbug and calumniate Cap-
system of government cannot be thoroughly tarn ELLIOT and his countrymen, while a British
discredited by such a fact as that with- squadron was at anchor in the Chinese waters,
out involving the system and all that de- what treatment may not our merchants expect
pends on it, from the crowned Queen to when that squadron shall have sailed for Eng-
the little midshipman, in continual danger. land? We now come to the next paragraph in
Higher interests, therefore, than nierely fill-
the remonstrance •
ing the exchequer, tend to promote the prin-
soenddily.anTdheentsitrr:lnglaintidsromalouds circumstancet rf ae
opoonr
ci;les of free trade. There is an overruling ne- professedly t
cessity in this matter which will compel even rry from 13:thorn it has entirely British
wrespteadi.ngOru, at all events, if any
stoanotheo
the Tories, whatever may be their theories, to duties had been conceded, the principle of such ought to have
yield; because they wish to preserve a system been distinctly understood, in limine—more particularly with
that will be destroyed by attempting to make such a Governmenth as the Chinese. For we cannot shut our
the people bear the grievous burden of taxation eyesb ton
itcruepfto rizenrcrp rdaecbttisc eboyf
the
meChinesea o
d d
itio Governmentnald duties
pay-
forr the State, and the heavier burden of taxation vied on our commerce ; these additional duties being continued
for the benefit of individuals. after the purposes for which they had been laid on were satis-
fied, and we are justified in supposing that the indemnity will
be raised in a similar manner.
Exactly—this objection to the Convention was
made in The Sun of Friday, and in much stronger
language than is here employed. What is said
about the practice of the Chinese Government,
which pays the debts of the Hong merchants by
an increase of duties upon British shipping, has
again and again been brought under the notice
of the readers of this Journal. But, perhaps,
the important question of the duties is among
those trifling details which Plenipotentiary
ELLIOT announces as remaining for negotiation.
In his new character of Plenipotentiary, it was
not to be expected that Superintendent ELLIOT
could be expected to bear in mind all the ped-
dling details of Custom-House regulations, port-
dues, and export and import duties. To count
buttons with KESHEN, and, above all, to rival
him in the art of official ceremonial, was, of
course, more an object of ELLIOT ambition than
the display of a vulgar acquaintance with a traffic
in tea, rhubarb, silk, and camlets. But, to pro-
ceed :
Thirdly. The exceedingly small amount of the indemnity
which has been Fixed. Its prolonged payment we do not so
much wonder at, knowing the poverty of the Chinese Go-
vernment to meet a claim for property to an immense amount
wantonly ~acrificed, and the expenses of a foreign armament to
obtain redress for such spoliation. Besides, the amount of in-
demni:-y will not cover the cost of the opium alone, keep-
ing out of view the large sum of interest on it sacrificed, and
tl-,e equitable claims of British subjects for severe losses suf-
fered through the proceedings of the Chinese Government. The
expenses of the expedition must, therefore, fall upon England,
for it is not enough to say that we have gained a British posses-
sion in China at the sacrifice of that cost. We had military
possession of not only the island of Chusan, apparently
viewed by the Chinese Government of great importance, but
we had possession of a great part of the Bocca Tigris (the
remaining forts being of easy acquisition), and thus command-
ing the navigation, of one of the most important rivers in
China, and in which the foreign intercourse of the empire
centred. Either of those possessions might have been given
to Hong Kong; although an excellent harbour, yet a settle-
ment which has to be entirely formed, and the commerce of
Canton diverted to it.
Altogether it is a droll business. We give up
a part of our claim for the illegally confiscated
opium—we give up altogether thef expense of the
expedition, amounting to about a million and a
half sterling—we give up the fine island of
Chusan, purchased by our blood—and we give
up all we have taken of the Bocca Tigris for a
miserable island ten miles long by five broad,
noted only for its production of mud banks, and
its being an hundred miles more out of the way
than Whan;kpoa! Here is a commercial bargain
for you ! If we look only at the surface of it,
the conjuror's exchange of an hundred new
lamps for ALADDIN'S old one was niggardliness
itself when compared with the extravagant libe-
rality of Plenipotentiary - ELLIOT. But no Ge-
nius, the dispenser of hidden treasures, attends
the possessor of Hong Kong. It is what it ap-
pears, and nothing more—that is to say,
not one-twentieth part so valuable, either
as a fortress or a commercial station, as
Chusan. But the Globe and the Chro-
nicle tell us, the one with a gravity, the
other with a flippancy worthy of each other, that
the expedition was not sent to make conquests in
China. What then, in the name of common
sense, was it sent to do If the object of the
expedition was not to obtain redress for griev-
ances, and failing all other means, by con-
quest, what, we ask, was its object, or had it
any object at all ? Was it to proceed on a
fool's errand, and return with his finger in
his mouth, that a British Admiral was sent
to China at the head of a fleet, to fit out
which swallowed a million and a half of Eng-
glish taxes ? The remonstrance continues :
Fourthly. The third basis of this Treaty, as to direct in-
tercourse between the two countries, involves details as to
the mode in which it is to be carried on, of which we are
ignorant, and can therefore give no opinion as to its prac-
ticability.
Fifthly. In regard to the fourth basis of the Treaty, we
may be allowed to remark that we shall return to Canton, ap-
parently under less favourable auspices than when we were
obliged to leave it upwards of 19 months ago.
Lastly. The entire silence of the Plenipotentiary in re-
gard to the Hong debts due to British subjects, amounting to
about 4,000,000 dollars.
The remaining paragraphs of the notice, and the separate
notice, require no comments, the reasoning of and promises
held forth in both being of a piece with the Plenipotentiary
and Chief Superintendent's acts previously,
It is said the whole expedition (with the exception, we
hear, of her Majesty's ships Druid, Nimrod, Pylades, and
Columbine, one of the steamers, and the 18th Royal Irish,
who are to remain in the meantime), are to return to Eng-
land and India ; and that before, as it would appear, the
details of the treaty are settled—the satisfactory adjustment
of which we are very doubtful of. And we cannot help
remarking that one of the best appointed fleets which have
left England for many a year will return without obtaining
a single term of the demand which, according to the declara-
tions made in both Houses of Parliament, it was sent out
to enforce—a task to which, according to every good autho-
rity on the spot, it was fully adequate, without, moreover,
m so much valuable time. In short, the heads of the Treaty,'
inaeos rset
ofas:
iotuhr ahbolnenouprpaonrtdu naidt
vantagey ,
as promulgated to us, we humbly submit, bear ex facie the
imnayt
hni
so tp
arts o onoofctchuer
w ago
ralidn.
seeds of its own destruction. White, on the other hand, a
Chusaonwiset o
tbienreimly metdhieatel yrestored
whole
of t o
this the Crhei
mn e soen.
H
be en lost to Great Britain for the extension of her coin.'
Strance
accords with all we have written upon the last
intelligence from China, is by this time suffi-
ciently well known to the
the
edseursb
subject
further,7e Sun.
We will not to-day pursue
but opportunities will not be wanting of returning
to it.

•
mounted cavalry, who are by no means disposed to run the risk
of a general action. The two Khalifas, Ben Hameide
and Mustapha Ben Thanes,. joined on the 23d of
the month on the Hubrah, and concerted the plan.
of defence preseribed by the Emir. It was in this
movement of the two corps that the light horse of Ben-Thany
attempted to lay an ambush for General Lamoriciere, in which
they received a check from that General, and had many
wounded, who were conveyed to Mascara.
Abd-el-Kader, who has made a treaty with Tedgeni, and
has in some degree imposed his sovereign authority on him,
has just demanded of him a contingent of 500 Mirjahs, armed
and equipped ; but the Marabout of Ain-Mandi has eluded the
demand; Abd-el•Kader is enraged at this circumstance.
The Duke of Nemours is expected in our province, and it is
said that General Boyer, his aide-de-camp, will have the chief
command of the brigade of cavalry.
We are quite ready to take the field at the first order, which
the troops look for with impatience. The health of the men
is as good as possible. The heat is great; the crops of corn are
very fine.—Le Commerce.

BOURSE.--..PARIS, SATURDAY, APRIL 10.
irat Highest Lowest Last
Price Price. Pricy. Price
French 5 per Cents ....... 113 90 113 95 .4. 113 70 112 70
4 per Cents ll9 49 ... 99 40 ... 99 40 99 49
3 per Cents 79 10
.... 79 15 78 90 ... 78 fQ
Rank of riance
Litfitte Bank 5,090 L Shares 5160 ...516' ...slc° ...5160
zelinan Hank
5 per Cents lOll4 ... 101 U ... 101 ... 191
:I,anish Active t'4% 24%,, 24
Portuguese 3 per Cents
21• N
Neapolitan
Roman
RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain
Versailles,R. B
375 ... 375 ... 370 370
L.B 270 270 255 ...
Orleans .
485 ... 485 ... 483 485 Montpellier to Cette 250 Str ... 250 ... 250 ... 250
a.ourg to Bale 2li7 50 ... 238 75 237 50 . 238 75
Rouen 455 ... 455 ... 452 50 452 5U

PRIVY COUNCIL.-(THIS DAY.)

WOOD AND OTHERS r. GOODLAKE AND HITC MINS.
( Before Lord Lyt.dhursr, the Viee-Chance.lor, the Mas-
ter of the Rolls, asrotr Pa: ke, and Sir J. Littli.dale.)
'The"SOLICI TOR- GENERAL resumed his address this morn-
ing-, shortly after ten o'clock. The Learned Counsel pro-
ceeded at some length to refer to the evidence that had
been given with regard to the will of the testator and the
promises held out by him at various times to different par-
ties. It was clear, from all the facts of the case, that he
intended to make a further disposition of his property by
codicil. He had made promises, and created ex-
pectations in the minds of certain parties, and
he nun-appearance of any codicil naturi.:ly gave
rise to the suspicion of some fraud. Mr. Cnad-
borne was distinctly admitted to have said that there
was no doubt the testator intended to have left legacies,
and they would pay them. The evidence of Philpots was
to the same effect; and, in fact, there were so many cir-
cumstances scattered throughout the case, which justified
the belief that it was the intention of the testator to make
a codicil, that their Lordships could not entertain a rea-
sonable doubt on that point. The evidence of the de-
struction of papers was extremely vague and uncertain,
and their Lordships had no judicial knowledge of the ex-
tent to which it had been carried. It was clear that
many persons had been left legacies of large
amount, which the testators did not feel themso ves
inclined to pay, and nothing could be so well devised to
get rid of the claim altogether as the destruction of these
papers. He was justified therefore, in saying that the case
came before them under circumstances of great suspicion.
He had shown their Lordships the readiness with which
the testator's most important documents could be got at.
He had shown the testator complaining of the loss of pre-
vious testamentary documents, and he bad shown that the
parties who were about him at that time were principally
those implicated in the present transaction. The diffi-
culties of proof on his side were very great; but their
Lordships would take into account the circumstances of
the case in weighing these proofs, and make due
allowance for its defects. The Learned Counsel then re-
ferred at some length to the evidence which had been
given with regard to the handwriting of the testator, and
the doubt which had been attempted to be thrown upon the
authenticity of the codicil. (It is understood that the So-
licitor-General will close his address this afternoon, and
that Sir William Follett, who has returned from Liver-
pool, will proceed with his argument on the same side at
the sitting of the Court to-morrow morning.)

Madrid journals of the 3d inst. have reached
us. The question of the Regency .was not to
come on for ten days. The Chamber of Peers
was not constituted. In the Deputies on the Ist
the Budget was presented. The expenses of the
country were estimated at 1,106,324,302 reals,
and the revenue at 885,126,551 reals, leaving a
deficiency of 221,197,751 reals (2,220,0001. ster-
ling). The Fives were at 261 for cash, and 27
for 60 days.