The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Times.)
Some of our Contemporaries on this side the Chan-
nel, as well as the other, continue to exhibit all the
symptoms of the liveliest apprehension of a rupture with
France. M. Thiess is denounced by one of the corre-
spondents of a Morning Paper as the main author of
the strife, resisting all the pacific inclinations of the
King of the French, and despatching " dangerous" in-
structions to the French fleet ; whilst a distinguished
writer in another column assures the public that his
Majesty approves of all the measures adopted by his
Minister, and persists in the most warlike resolves.
But, whatever alarm may have been expressed here
from the apparent renewal of a more hostile tone on
the part of the French Government, we are now per-
fectly assured, that though the posture of affairs is ex-
tremely serious, and that a spark may set the world on
fire, yet no new incident has arisen, and no projects are
entertained by the French Government to hasten so
disastrous a consequence. On the contrary, the states-
men who met last week at the Chateau d'Eu appear to
be fixedly and unitedly determined to adhere to that
expectant policy, which is unquestionably the best re-
maining chance of peace. Under the circum-
stances of the c Ise, with a community offended and
annoyed at the interruption of that alliance by
which peace has been preserved for ten years, jea-
lous of England, hostile to Russia, and besotted to the
Pasha—with an infuriated press, and a large excited
military population, it does not appear that any more
prudent or pacific course could have been pursued
without exposing the Government to being carried away
into what would be less prudent and least pacific of all.
As far as we know anything of the matter, the King of
the French and his Ministers are not less pacific than
they have ever been, but they have a triple and an ar-
duous task—to keep the French nation within bounds,
to keep the French fleet within bounds, to keep the
Pasha of Egypt within bounds, and all this with a due
regard to their own safety and character.
(From the Morning Advertiser.)
The Commission of the General Assembly has closed
its proceedings, and adjourned till November next.
The matters b,sfore it were of the deepest importance ;
no less so were the speeches delivered, and the decla-
rations made by the leaders of the Non-intrusion move-
ment. It will be remembered that on Wednesday last
we earnestly entreated the evangelical party in the
Commission to take their stand in their dealings with
the Strathbogie case, on high and lofty principles,
and to throw to the winds all considerations of a
personal nature. We urged them not to hesitate,
should the forms of the Church allow of such a step in
the existing position of matters, to proceed at once to
the deposition of the seven suspended clergymen. That
is a doom which inevitably awaits these moderate
gentlemen, and that at no distant day : it is as inevit-
able, indeed, as it is deserved. It appears, however,
that the forms of the Church required that the contu-
macious parties should be what is called " libelled,"
before the extreme and final step of deposition should
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majority of 180 to 66, that is, by a majority of almost
three to one. Had the power of deciding in the matter
been vested in the members of the Church of Scotland
generally, the majority would have been at least twenty
to one. We are grievously mistaken if the seven re-
bellious clergymen of Strathbogie do not now begin, if
they did not indeed begin before, to have some mis-
givings as to the wisdom—wisdom in a worldly point of
view—of the course they have thought proper to pur-
sue. They now see, unless we greatly err, that they are
likely to have a larger dose of " civilism" administered
to them than will be palatcable to their tastes. If they
do not wish belore long that they had evinced less par-
tiality for " Alex. Peterkin " and the Court of Session,
and somewhat more for the Church and her laws, we
shall for the time to come renounce all claim to the
gift of prophecy.
(From the Morning Post.)
The letter of our Dublin correspondent contains an
account of the first meeting of the Ulster Reform Asso-
ciation, on Friday last, at the Music Hall, Belfast.
There is one point of view, and only one, in which the
proceedings of this meeting can be considered as of
im-
portance. It shows how much of that harmony of prin.:
c iple and purpose which the Ministerialists on this side
the Channel affect at the present moment to regard as
necessary to the. healthy and vigorous existence of a
political party subsists among the Ministerial faction in
Ireland, in that only division of the empire where
Ministers are not in a ridiculous and contemptible
minority. The first point to which we would call the
attention of the British public in reference to the Ulster
Reform Association is the names of the individuals
who are put forward as its leaders. We find that the
Earl of Charlemont was elected President ; the Mar-
quis of Headfort, the Earl of Gosford, the Earl of
Leitrim, the Earl of Bellast, Viscount Southwell,
Viscount Acheson, Viscount Clements, Lord Ross-
more, Lord Strafford, Lord Cremorne, Count de
Salis, Sir R. S. Adair, Bart., and Sir William Hort,
perceive Torment,ss,h
oE wsq.,
Trea-
surer—Baortu. Vice-Presidentsandr
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ders w
Messrs.ili Crawfordat ;
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e J.
and Ross, Secretaries.large
a
proportion of the noblemen and gentlemen whose
names figure in the above list arc bound to the
present Ministers of the Crown by official tics.
The whole list seems to be composed of Lords of
the Bedchamber, of the husbands of Ladies of the
Bedchamber, of ci devant Whig Governors of Colonies,
and of the sons of these various attaches of the present
Administration. The Association is evidently a Minis-
terial one in the strictest sense of the word. And if
that harmony of purpose and action which the Ministe-
rialists in Great Britain are instructed just at present
to vaunt as indispensable to the efficiency, and even to the
existence, of a political party, prevailed among the Mi-
nisterialists of Ireland, or could even for a moment be
assumed, it is moral y certain that at the first meeting of
the Ulster Reform Association there would have been
no denunciation of Mr. O'Connell, no criticism of his
conduct, no express disavovsal of his principles and
views, no proclamation of the impossibility of co-ope-
rating with him.
(Prom the Morning Herahl.)
Whether the French Government be serious or not
in the hostility of tone towards England with which
it inspires its journals, and whether its apparent pre-
parations • for war be real or pretended, certain it is
that a wise policy would dictate such active measures
on the part of our own Government us would enable
this country to be prepared for the worst. Every
means of defence and offence should be put in re-
quisition to meet the exigency of the occasion, and
make the war a short one, if the angry threats of our
irritated ally should become realities. But to have a
wise policy directing affairs, we must cease to have a
feeble, indolent, and corrupt Government. It is un-
reasonable to expect that the duties of faithful Minis-
ters of the Crown, and patriotic guardians of the national
honour, should be discharged by parasites of the Pa-
lace and dangling courtiers—the satisfied dependents
upon Ladies of the Bedchamber"—the contented vassals
of an insolent barbarian, avowedly labouring within the
Queen's dominions for the dismemberment of the em-
pire. Such persons placed by succeesful arts of impos-
ture in the position of Ministers of State, can have no
regard for the dignity of the Crown or the honour of
the nation. Why, then, should they give themselves
any trouble to uphold the one or vindicate the other ?
The Palmerston evening orrn., not satisfied with con-
fessing that the Sybarite politicians whom it serves re-
pose upon beds of roses during the warlike din of pre-
paration by our Gallic neighbours, condescends, no
doubt, on authority, to give a reason for the policy of
remaining in as unprepared a condition as possibe to
meet hostilities, if the French should convert their words
into actions.
the Morning Chronicle,)
(From
The public disgust is still iresti and strong at the
gross immoralities occasioned by the Rev. Dr. Moles-
worth in the parish of Rochdale, for the sake of obtain-
ing
a Church-rate triumph. All the reports of the late
contest agree in furnishing the particulars of a horrible
scene of strife, bribery, fraud, violence, and (in the
result) of most questionable legality- The victory of
which the Church's false friends and Judas apostles
boast is, that by the Rector's prolonging the poll an hour
beyond the time fixed for its termination, a colourable
majority has been obtained for the rate, instead of the
majority against it which existed at the regular, and, it
will probably be found, the legal,
close of the poll, But
whether this Tory divine, of Canterbury and Bradshaw
notoriety, have, or have not, saddled his parishioners
with a burden which they
have long protested against
hearing, is morally a subordinate circumstance in the
transaction. The basest and foulest influences of a
hotly contested" election have been let loose upon his
parish. The factiousness that acquiesced in disloyalty
and calumny towards the Sovereign may fitly pursue
its course till it ride in the whirlwind and direct
the storm" of a contest, in which every precept
of the Saviour is violated in his holy, but desecrated