The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-29 00:00:00

y.PNING EDITION.

Echo Francais, the Commerce and the National, 1
were all seized at the Post-office, and the Editors
?f these journals received notice that they would
be prosecuted for forgery and personal attacks
°n the KING. If any journals had published
i England libels on the QUEEN, the Govern-
inent would not have been compelled to inter-
fere. It might have used its discretion. It might
have refuted the scandal through the medium of
sore other journals, or it might have omitted to
notice
the calumny. No harm would have been
done by its adopting either course, as prudence
might have dictated. But in France the Govern-
Ineut was obliged to proceed against these journals,
obllged
to arrest them at the Post-office, and
tuliged to prosecute the Editors before the Courts.
'Ve wish to draw the attention of the public and of
setesnien and very particularly we wish to draw
the attention of meddling statesmen, to the
source of the difference between the conduct of
the two Governments.
°f course it originates in the different laws of
the,two countries. In France the law con-
fers on the Government a sort of supervising
power over the Journals, or a quasi censorship.
t
iishcallnot, therefore, allow anything to be pub-
hLed in them which provokes, as it may sup-
WA,Pei resistance to the Government, or which is
R.P°sed to be an insult to the King, or to the
;311 authority. Such is the consequence of the
ittweePtional laws of 1819, and the September
Gus' which the Republican Doctrinaire, M.
iostiz°Ti with his friends, was one of the chief
go:lll24ms for passing. It is clearly the conse-
oblinfre,,e, °f that law that the Government is
Journals to interfere. If it were not, the
lies would receive impunity, and the
it in",4ld be circulated by authority. When
of —Lerferes, the law prescribes its course
pal proceedings, and having stopped the jour-
pro: it Must, in vindication of its conduct,
ilente the editors. It is clear, therefore, that
th Pe obligations are created and imposed on
it e:rench Government by the law which gives
wilt
over the press.
t is also plain that power carries great duties
biltall it, and imposes great obligations. It was
tie 11; as a protection and relief. Now, the ques-
ie:tll;or Consideration is—does it effect that ob-
i.) Are not the duties more onerous than the
lote°teetion is useful ? We wish that the gentle-
-1411 who so perpetually demand more coercive
gentle-
laws
would think of this. Every such law im-
hotels, obligations, and creates duties which did
Ivh "ef°re exist, which the GOD of nature, under
tiot°,,,se dominion both kings and subjects live, has
the provided, and has not thought necessary for
reetillaPPiness of his creatures, and which are
tioeints on freedom, impediments to action,
el°g's on the exercise of discretion.
tilt -nal seem that the one in question is not
eces
Would
kod sarY, because the United States and Eng-
Gov Prosper without any similar law. The
With'rinents in both countries are more secure
o
ut such a law than the Government of
ti;it-ulee with it. If no such law existed, every
oil:Bolt:reflection and of common sense would at
dist; believe the denial of Louis PHILIPPE and
and
eueve the assertion of the obviously factious
°bYlously dishonest persons who have put
forth
the letters. Nothing would give them
a'cre-
the" except the existotice of a law authorising
lett trest of the Journals and the allowing the
a par:tube published. The law, by conferring such
pea,, er, gives validity to everything which ap-
pub.,B: in print. It undertakes to judge for the
vere; the public submit to it—for the public re-
ittrellees the law, although it enact the greatest
plibeleitY that ever disgraced human nature—the
st,lje discretion goes to sleep, and every lie not
hlrptressed by the law receives the stamp of
141. It is the law, therefore, which, by creating
u. Power, also creates the duty, and also creates
the unpleasant consequences.
ahhz bis is an illustration of a principle. A
4—tlar train of facts may be observed of
Pert variety of enactments, well meant,
ttor),9 e
,aPs, but full of evil. Take, for ex-
) our licensing system. The power to
atidlltt licenses imposes the duty to grant them,
t Punt them to proper persons. The law
the s 41akes the public authorities responsible for
license is
of licensed tradesmen of all kinds.
4eellse is a legal sanction, and sets discretion
,01:
-el% It does not serve the public, for it really
etributes to impose on them ; it does not serve
4fil.ltuthorities, for it adds amazingly to their
re::B' and
1i must make them, if conscientious and
nb men, doubtful whether or not the du-
Derti:e properly performed. True, they may be
tisrcrined as the law prescribes, which may sa-
s(nue consciences ; but a law which substi-
all es its hard and invariable rule—which is, after
tinge Only the dictate of some one man's judgment
to tignainted with the circumstances which ought
own hide the case—a law which substitutes its
uard and invariable rule for the reason and
tireMent of individuals under the influence of
itity.ixistances, must be injurious to the commu-

Clive might quote further, as illustrations, our
lksl L°lll-house and Excise duties, which, giving
titilrer to the Government to raise money by cer-
siik4 methods, impose on it the irk Some duties,
toce injurious to the morality and prosperity of
'hot: tY) of watching over the arrival and depar-
the °F every ship, and making it responsible for
itkOktional commerce, and of interfering with
jet?,rescribing every species of manufacture sub-
-8))01;° Excise regulations, and so making it re-
kivBl?ie for the national manufactures ; but we
11148;115? the present referred to cases enough to
(1014,,tate the general principle, and make men
441'5 We think, whether the powers created by
ties, el.°lls laws, which impose corresponding du-
Nrli°t imposed on man by nature, are not
ttitutii.' burdensome to the authorities, and
/'lloxious to the people.
Tit

- -
exp,!llomination of candidates for Walsall is
tioWet4 to take place on Monday, and the elec-
t :11. Tuesday next. We have therefore yet
4:1:1-,t° say one encouraging word to the honest
With rue electors. If anything can inspire men
l 116ble thoughts, and make them spurn all
tohWata."r base considerations, it is the conviction
„-Y are acting under the eyes of an intelli-
Public, which expects such conduct of them.
eo e, `
will quarrel with no man for his honest
hilikvieti°4B, however sorely we may lament
afts error ; but the elector who, in such
au;lise) gives a vote from bribery or fear, who
hi'ePs"r respect for any individual to overmaster
public,
solemn conviction of what is due to the
th ought to be handed down to posterity with
elltloost disgrace. Care will, of course, be taken
t 0 Publish the names of the voters, and high
i7nour will be bestowed on those who, surmount-
ho and personal predilections, give an
fo_liest vote for a public cause. We have no fear
off n',12,1e result. We cannot conceive that the men
alsallwill make the name of that borough a
,Ye-'vvord to all future time. They are placed in
etnvee front rank of one of the holiest contests that
b..: engaged the zeal of patriots, and the
13',._K of the nation cheers them on to victory.
uw With the bread-taxi is the emphatic rallying
Der):
1.1°113 triumph. under which they march to an assured and
°
The m

b°l. -aYor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the
°llOl of Leicester have petitioned Parliament
tol, Put a stop to the compulsory levying of
.‘l"e rch-rates upon Dissenters, and for abolishing
17 Ecclesiastical Courts. That these Courts
laye not been long since abolished is disgraceful
to .the intelligence and the boasted liberality of
country. They are part and parcel of the
.tar Chamber, and ought to have been swept
-waY With it. If we must have a connection be-
nomn Church and State, let the connection be
galete. If we are to have but one Christian
ejr.e, let us have but one civil and criminal one.
.th our pulpit uniformity, e have a right to
insist o -w
n uniformity in the athninistration of the
jaws) and in the laws themselves. The Church,
silt:riacting and enforcing laws unknown to the
—te""'in claiming a right to exenise a separate

and independent jurisdiction over the minds and
bodies of men—annuls the connection between
herself and the State. She places herself above
the Constitution, and assumes the privilege of ex-
ercising a right to which the QUEEN, Lords, and
Commons, and the Judges in her MAJESTY'S Ci-
vil and criminal Courts, are alone competent•
Now, such a state of things cannot continue. If the
Church looks to the State to uphold what she calls
her rights, she must appear in the ordinary courts
of justice to uphold and defend them. Her Courts
into which men enter as flies into the meshes of
the spider's web, to be blood-sucked and de-
voured, must be swept from the face of that earth
whose soil they moisten with the tears of such
victims as the poor widow YOUNG. They are
neither courts of equity nor justice, but dens of ec-
clesiastical rapine and prelatical persecution; and
nothing will tend more completely to alienate
the minds of the working classes of England
from the Established Church than any attempt
on the part of the priesthood to save them from
that extermination to which the voice of public
justice has doomed them.

How humble are the instruments with which
GOD sometimes works for the confounding of in-
justice! A poor shoemaker, a weaver, and a pen-
flyless widow, have broken the sword of spiritual
tyranny, irresistible by Prince or Noble since the
days of the Norman Conquest. What no com-
bination of lay Lords was ever able to accomplish
has been virtually effected by JOHN THORO-
GOOD, WILLIAM BAINES, and SARAH YOUNG.

We call public attention to the letter in an-
other place, headed "Tithe Commutation Ex-
penses." The subject is likely, we understand,
to be brought before Parliament in the shape of
an amendment in the Tithe Commutation Act.
Certainly the principle complained of—that of
imposing the whole expenses of the commuta-
tion on tenants for life, while they can reap only
a small portion of the benefit—is unjust.
Whether Parliament will be able to find a
remedy for its own wrong, may be doubtful ;
though there does not seem to be an insuperable
obstacle to fixing on each estate the expense of
the commutation, so that every succeeding pos-
sessor should pay in proportion to the advantage
he derives from the commutation.

We have received the whole of the Paris Jour-
nals of Wednesday. The speech of M. TRIERS,
which occupies more than eight columns of the
illoniteur, is too long to allow us to give even
a summary of it to-day. This speech, which
occupied three hours in the delivery, and which,
says the Constitutionnel, refuted every objection
made to the Committee's plan of fortifying Paris,
closed the general debate upon the Bill, which
the Chamber proceeded to discuss, article by
article. If all France was inspired by the sen-
timents of M. TRIERS, we should not long con-
tinue to enjoy the blessings of peace. Instead of
contending, like M. GUIZOT, that the fortifica-
tion of the capital was a guarantee of peace to
Europe, he proved that the idea was never enter-
tained but when France indulged in dreams of
conquest. He assured the Chambers that if it
employed all the resources that national
grandeur, art, and a long peace had placed at its
disposal; France might brave, not only Europe,
but the world. In a still more Vandal spirit he
alluded to the stripping of the Louvre of works
of art in 1815, and asked the Chamber in what it
differed to France whether these works were
destroyed by the cannon of a besieging army)
or carried away in triumph to adorn other ca-
pitals? M. TRIERS chose ,to forget that the works
of art of which the Allies deprived Paris, were
those of which they had been disgracefully
pillaged by her. Not a picture, nor a statue,
nor a relic of antiquity to which France could es-
tablish other than a robber's title, were taken
from her. But whether or no, who but a Vandal
would destroy an immortal work of art rather
than witness its humanizing and ennobling
effect upon the mind of an enemy 1 M. TRIERS

had also the hardihood to affirm that the Eng-
lish and the Allies within the lines of Torres
Vedras amounted to 70,000 men, that MASSE-
NA'S force was 40,000 ; and that had Marshal
SOULT ably supported MASSENA the lines would
have been forced. This brought the Marshal
upon his legs, who in substance told the ex-Pre-
mier that he knew nothing of what he was talk-
ing about. The hulk of the Allies were engaged
with him, and yet MASSENA could not force the
lines because they were impregnable.

On Wednesday the discussion of the Bill article
by article was commenced. M. BEA umoNT moved
an amendment uponithe first article for reducing
the grant from an hundred and forty millions of
francs to twenty millions. It was rejected. M.
JANVIER next moved its reduction to thirty-five
millions, and upon this amendment the Chamber
was debating up to the departure of the mails for
London :

The Univers of this morning has the following para-
graph
" The letters ascribed to the King, of which those
published by the Gazette de France a few days ago, and
those which the Government prosecutes, are said to be one
hundred and ninety.three in number. It is affirmed that
20,000 francs were paid for them by the two honourable
gentlemen whom the Morning Post accuses of having
purchased them."
The affair of the National is to come on before the

Court of Assize on the 13th of February next.

We find the following account in a letter from Bilbao of
the 19th :—" A frightful event has just spread consterna-
tion in the country.
" On Sunday, the 17thlinst., the inhabitants of a small
village in the district of &plata, in the Encurtacionea,
were:attending mass ; six armed men entered the church.
They forced the persons present to fall down with their
faces to the ground, they called Don Augustin San Gine,
dragged him out of the church, and after they had mur-
dered him, found their way into his house, where they
seized his son, whom they also assassinated. They fled
into the mountains before the few inhabitants could recover
from their terror. The motives of these murders are
unknown.
THE Ex-KiNa OF HOLLAND.—We learn (says the
Journal des Flandres) from very good authority, that the
marriage of the ex-King William to the Countess d'Oultre-
mont is definitely fixed. The outfit of the bride is actu-
ally preparing as Liege. This union, which we have
always considered as probable, will be solemnized next
Spring.
The damage done by the inundation at Degnie and
Thiel, and the environs, is considerable.
BRUSSELS, JAN. 27.—Some journals have stated that
the University of Brussels had sent an address to M. de
Lamennais. This is a mistake.
BEUSSELS, JAN. 27.—The average price of Wheat last
week was 18f. 35c., and that of Rye, 111. 58c.
130 UR SE.—Paats, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27.
_ first Highest Lowest Last
Price Price. Pricy. Price
Fre. ch 5 per Cents ll2 55 ... 112 60 ... 112 50 ... 112 50
4 per Cents
3 per Cents 77 10 77 15 77 10 77 15
Bank of France
Laftitte Sank 5000 f. Stares 5112 50 .4112 50 ...5112 50 ...5112 50
Itelgian Bank
S per Cents 9814 98% 9S3i 51834
New Lean -98% ... 98% ... 98% ... 98%
ip.unsh Active 25% ... 26 ... 251 i. ... 25%
Passive ... 6g, ... 6% ...
Portuguese 3 per Cents 2l ... 21 21 21
Roman... ....... ........