The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-15 00:00:00

zile -,'ulx.

LONDON:
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1840.

The desire for Corporation Reform, and the plan
of it, did not originate with the Tories. It was
called lot by the people, and the Whigs obtained,
by a Commission, the cvideace which Parliament
required to justify it. This was more especially the
case in Ireland, where the Corporations were avow.
edly exclusive, and were intended to defend usurpa-
tions. The Corporation Reform in no wise origi-
nated with the Tories. Eom the first they declared
themselves hostile to it ; they opposed it both in
England and Ireland with their utmost strength,
and only conceded it when they saw that resivance
was hopeless, and that longer opposition was more
injurious to their party than submission; It sprung
from the people, it had their welfare for its object,
and was conceded to meet their views.

It is a good practice to allow that power which
originates a measure to carry it out in its own way,
and on its own, principle. The army, for example,
originates with the Crown, and the Crown settles
the whole of its discipline ; and all the officers and
inn are taught to look solely to the Crown. Every
attempt to bring that body under popuhlr control,
has been met by almost universal opposition. The
same fact is true of the administration of the law, and
the few Judges who are placed under popular control
serve to show the value of allowing one principle
to determine all the conditions and all the parts of
any institution. We must guard ourselves against
being supposed to imply that if the whole adminis-
tration of the law depended cn popular election
it would be a public injury. We think the reverse,
We Aouid like to see the system spring entirely
from (be people ; we are only now referring to the
present practice as an illustration of the propriety
of allowing that }Jrinciple, whatever it may be,
which is the sonl of an institution, to dictate and
cnitrol all Its parts.
It is generally supposed, let us further observe,
when a nation is obliged to submit to a conqueror—
when, after making as noble a staid as possible, it
is subdued in spite of all its exertions, that it is
wise to make the submission without any reserve,
and allow the conqueror to settle the affairs of his
colAtiest after his own fashion. What he has won
by his sword, he is to regulate by the same weapon,
and, being gratified by success, submission may
make his yoke light.
The Tories have wholly despised these prin-
ciples and maxims, and when they could no longer
resist with safety the public demand for
Corporation Reform, they have refused to
allow the people or their agents and represen-
tatives to settle the conditions. They have
been conquered, but insist on irritating the con-
qu:.ror. They kindle his anger, and force him to
take yet stronger measures. They have yielded, but
Lave insisted, by brandishing their swords in the
face of their master, on showing that the) are
ready and willing, and only want the power, to fall
on him again. Such is the extremely foolish con-
duct of the Tory Lords in marring the Irish Muni_
cipal Bill, which they could not stop, y uni-
The were
b
fairly beaten, but they insisted on placing their
insulting, but not binding, fetters on the Catholic
willions. Their folly is illustrated by the proceed-
ings of Mr. O'CONNELL. At a great meeting of
the Repeal Association, on Monday, he moved and
carried unanimously a series of resolutions, of
which we quote the following ;
" Resolved—That the Bill for the alteration of Mu-
nicipal Corporations in Ireland has passed under cir-
eumsta-nees and in a manner the most derogatory and-
insulting to the people of Ireland—a vicious ingenuity
baying been successfully used to render that measure
disgusting i
to all sects and parties, and, instead of doing
away existing and proved grievances, becoming in itself
one of the most contemptuous oppressions that could
have been inflicted on a brave, a generous, and a loyal

nation.
" Resolved—That we do not think it possible to
find a single Irishman of any sect, party, or persua-
sion, who can be so fatuous, or so blind, as not to
perceive in the mode of passing, and in the provisions
of that Bill, the most decisive and conclusive proof that
neither the Irish people, nor any portion of the Irish
people, can expect any fair, just, or equitable, or dispas-
sionate legislation from a Parliament influenced by many
If the worst, as well as many of the most contemptible,
enemies of Ireland."

He then calls on all Irishmen to rally for the
sacred cause of their fatherland, and offers the
right hand of honest fellowship and the heart of
affectionate conciliation to all who have hitherto
opposed Corporate Reform. The same Dublin
pavers which contain these resolutions, contain an

account of a complete split in the Tory party,
which must serve to strengthen Mr. O'CONNELL,
arid iGry 14i Cif
v:;“fle Ir:311 people by tl-,eir
noxious wnindinents to the Corporation 8..1, had
been vindicating any great principle, or" stand-
ing up for any great act of justice, we should have
excused them ; but when, in defiance of justice, to
show their dignity, they gathered up the fragments
of their withered and broken power, and bound them
afresh on the Irish millions, their conduct was as
unjust and vicious as it was foolish and insulting.
They have only irritated their masters, for the Peers
live for the millions, not the trillions for the Peers.

If they suppose that they will be backed by the
English in keeping these puerile chains on the Irish
they are wofully mistaken. Whatever of unpopula-
rity now hangs on the Whigs comes from their imi-
tation of the Tories. The masses may dislike the
Whigs, but they deeply mistrust and intensely hate
their opponents. The ravings of a few parsons, the
personal predilections of the Peers, most of whom
are members of the Anglican Church, the daily false •
hoods of the Tory Journals, may have misled the
Peers ; but if they rely on the English to aid
them in reconquering Ireland for the behoof of
the Protestant parsons, they lean on a broken reed.
They cannot of themselves compel the Irish to
subiiiit, and the bulk of the English will make
common cause with the Irish against them. They
had an opportunity, by a graceful concession, to have
conciliated those whom they have tried in vain to
subdue ; they have only aggravated their host lity,
while they have increased their power. The Cor-
poration Bill, contemptible as it is, is one of Mr.
O'CONNELL'S instalments, and he is already using
it to compel the Tories to pay in full the sum he
claims for Ireland.

The Church-rate contest at Rochdale was full
of the vices of a political struggle, and should be
a solemn warning to the priesthood how they, in
the name of religion, bring about similar scenes.
A Church-rate fight, is however, in preparation at
Docking, the final resolution of the Rev. Sir IL
OAKLEY, the Dean, having been taken on the
when he referred those who wished to avoid
such a contest to his Churchwarden. It is not indeed
too late for the Rochdale case to influence his
judgment, and alarm hir,. for the consequences of
a Church-rate contest in Bocking. Much aliena-
tion has already taken place ; the Curate has been
canvassing the rate-payers ; the friends of religious
liberty have taken the same course ; the forces on
both sides are drawn up and numbered ; and it de-
pends on the Rev. Dean to give or withhold the
signal for engaging in battle. On him, then, will
rest all the responsibility.
He says, in his reply to the friends of religious
liberty, that the Churchwardens, in the discharge
of their duty, cannot take any other course than
that which the law prescribes. But in England
the law is nothing separate from the people, and if
they do not choose to carry it into execution there
is nobody to call them to account. If the Church-
wardens of Bucking and the Rev. Dean refrain from
putting the law into motion, they will never be
called before any Court for their neglect. It is a
poor subterfuge of the Dean, let us tell him,
though his courteous parishioners do not use such
plain language, when he implies thi.t the Church-
wardens are compelled by the law to provoke a
Church-rate contest. The law is, in this case,
less wicked than the Dean. For five years it has
been suffered to sleep by an arrangement amongst
the parishioners, and they who now rouse it into
activity will have to answer for all the mischief it
may cause. The friends of religious liberty in
Bucking do not anticipate a defeat. From their
canvass they are led to believe that 133 votes will
be given for a rate, and 199 against it. There are
119 neutrals who will not vote at all, and most of
whom would vote against the rate were they not
coerced into neutrality by the power of the corrupt
pro-rate party.

If we may judge from the number of notices of
motion left in the order-book of the House of
Commons, the next Session of Parliament pro-
mises to be a busy one. Some of these drafts on
the future may perhaps have been entered on the
record, from a consciousness on the part of Hon-
ourable Gentlemen, that the past has not been so
fruitful of exertion as their constituents might have
had reason to expect.

Mr. B. BALDWIN, for instance, has put down
I his name for four motions—two of thr m for Select
Committees, the third for a Bill, and a fourth
for returns of a somewhat voluminous description.
This Gentleman got into the Representative As-
sembly through the usual means adopted by the
Tories—means so well understood that it would be
an utter waste of time to describe them—and has
hitherto very discreetly, in our opinion, played the
part of dummy in " the House." Why he
should relinquish a part that suits him so ad-
inirably it is not for us to conjecture. Some other
Tory legislators figure in a similar way in the list ;
but on the greater proportion of the notices no sus-
picion can be supposed to rest.

Among the motions in question, there is one
which appears to us eminently worthy of public
support. It is for an address to her Majesty,
praying that she will be graciously pleased to direct
that in future no person, being a clergyman, shall
be put in the commission of the peace. If the clergy
were what they ought to be, and what they
pretend to be, ministers of the Gospel of CHRIST,
they would be the foremost to petition for the ex-
clusion here recommended. But unfortunately they
are much more in love with temporal than spiritual
offices. The bench has more charms for them
than the pulpit, and the consequence is that they
are almost equally ill qualified for both.
It has been laid down as a settled point by the
most able and conscientious ministers of the Church
in her better days, that the duties of the pastoral
office require the undivided attention of the pastor,
be his talents what they may. If his heart be in
his otlice, it is utterly impossible that he should
have either leisure or inclination for avocations
alien from its duties. If lie is " instant in season
and out of season," as he ought to be, in the
"salvation of souls," he will find the day too
short for his necessary labours. Such a minister
does not content himself with going in a cold
and lifeless manner through the routine of the
Church service on Sunday. He is not satisfied
with administering an opiate to his congregation
from the pulpit once a week. He finds something to
do every day of the week, and every hour of the day.
Let those who complain of the hostility shown to
the Church by the majority of the people, and of f
the want of respect shown to her ministera, say
whether they ever knew a clergyman devoted heart
and soul to his calling, and making conscience of
his duty, fail of commanding respect, even from the
greatest enemies of religious establishments. It is
because there are so few of such clergymen, that
establishments are so unpopular. The defects and
vices that might have been overlooked in the system,
had the cif rgy been faithful to their trustawd exemplary
in their conduct, have nothing to screen them from
public view, nothing to shield them from public in-
dignation, but stand out in their native repulsive-
ness, inviting attack.
Now, of all the offices which a minister of the
Gospel deserts his post to fill, that of a magistrate
is perhaps the most detrimental to his usefulness.
Not only does it give him a taste for honours quite
out of keeping with the honours of that kingdom
which we are told is not of 11113 world ; not only
does it occupy a large portion of that time, the
whole of which is not sufficient for the ministerial
duties rightly performed ; not only does it secularize
the mind, by withdrawing it from its spiritual ein- I
ployment and directing it to civil and patty objects,
but it exhibits the messenger of charity and mercy
in the odious light of an inflicter of punishment—
too often exhibits him in the character of a yin-
dictive and cruel persecutor—to those who ought
to love and reverence hint as a friend and father.

Some days ago we published the Report of the
Select Committee on Trafalgar-square, accompanied
by some remarks on the extraordinary conclusion at
which the Members had arrived. The site had
Woods
bocdes n and
of
been granted by the Commissioners o f
Forests more than six months ago--it had
course approved of by the NELSON Fund Committee,
and about 2,0001. of the money subscribed had
been expended at the moment the Select Committee
made their report; yet all these Mr. GALLY KNIGHT
and his four supporters disregarded, and announced,