The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-19 00:00:00

( From the Morning Herald.)

The history and mystery of Puseyism is thus satisfactorily
traced to the logical influenza which has so long pervaded the
schools and quadrangles of Oxford. It never can now become
an epidemic at Cambridge, for they are there secured from it
by the opposite study of the mathematics. But in days of
yore, when the school logic, was taught on the banks of the
Cam, and when the disciples of Aristotle and llamus divided
that learned university, the Popish tendencies of many of the
college tutors is still a matter of record in the annals of lite-
rature. The only logle worthy of cultivation is that large,
comprehensive, and inductive reasoning—the business of
human life—the bustle and activity of social, civil, and po-
litical employments. This is the healthy food of the in-
tellect. The real sources of argument are to be found, not in
Aristotle's Topics, but in the daily exercise of the faculties on
human affairs ; and the best method to detect sophistry is to
bid defilnce to the authority of fathers and schoolmen, and to
maintain the free, independent, and searching spirit of the
Protestant reformation. Nor is the example of Pascal as a
Papist to he adduced as any exception to this argument. In
his Provincial Letters" he reasons with all the wit and free-
dom of a Protestant. He was born a mathematician, and he
always derided the technical methods of the schoolmen. These
letters should now be republished and adapted to the exigencies
of the present age. How many striking examples might be
taken from the " Tracts for the Times," and from the wri-
tings of our living Puseyites, to be shown up by his inimitable
satire !

(From the Times.)

It would b 3 affectation in us to deny that we look forward to
the impending contest for Nottingham with the deepest inte-
rest. It has happened, by a dispensation which we cannot re-
gird as otherwise thin providential, that at this critical season,
when the Poor-law is actually upon its trial in Parliament,
and dining that short interval of breathing time which Minis-
ters have allowed to the country before resuming the dis-
cussion already commenced, a vacancy has occurred in
the representation of that very town which, above All
others, the friends of the poor would have chosen as the
most appropriate battle-field upon which to test the pl..
pular feeling. The friends of the pour in Nottingham
have seized the opportunity, and have sent a revisition
to the man whom even his adversaries must allow to be
cite fittest champion of the cause,—a man whose whole
public life has been devoted to the interests of the poor—who,
in Parliament and out of Parliament has temperately. reso-
lively. and without respect of persons or parties, stood forward
tie oppose the Poor-law Amendment Act, and shown himself
i-early to sacrifice ambition, influence, self-interest, and class-
pop7ilarity. rather than make any compromise upon this cardinal
point. We speak not of Mr. Wa'ter's personal character,
abilities, a attainments—upon these subjects others may speak
with greater p 'op' lety, because, perhaps with more impartiality,
than ourselves. ..'hut we claim for him the praise of being pre-
eminently the friend „! the poor, the persevering advocate of
and indefatigable foe of the So-
their rights, the undauntet!
merset-house despotism; and we feel that this assertion can-
hot be gainsald, except by those who, while they mu-t in their
"marts acknowledge the benevolence of Mr. Walter's intentions,
dispute the s)undness of his judgment.
(From the Globe.)
The impending Parliamentary contest at Notting.
ham exhibit; the utter destitution of principle by which
Toryism is distinguished, in a light too powerful to be
mistaken ; it will not fail to bring to the recollection of
our readers certain facts on which we have rested impu-
tations upon the party, which their organs have repelled
as false and calumnious, but which this and other recent
demonstrations have made too plain to be successfully de-
nied. To illustrate our meaning, it is only necessary to
alluiae to the fearful state of society which the malts-
fiseturine districts exhibited some eighteen months
since. The Chartists had covered the country with a
web-work of affiliated societies. Their national pe-
tition was collecting signatures from the hill-sides and
cottages of our rural counties, as well as from the '
looms, forges, and manufactories, of hives of hu-
man beings at Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle,
j3olton, Wolverhampton, Oldham, and Ashton-un-
der-Lyne. Birmingham was the capital of Feargus
O'Connor, end was well nigh sacrificed by fire to
the desire for plunder which pervaded his adherents.
Newport, situated the centre of extensive collieries,
was attacked by thousands of deluded men, many of
whom ivere armed, anti was only preserve-. 1 from
devastation, possibly from destrucijon, by the praise-
worthy promptitude of the Magistrates, supported
by the valour of a mere handful of troops, who re-
pelled the insurgents, and preserved the torn and
its peaceful inhabitants from the brutality of an
tefuriated mob. We stated at the times and confirmed
the truth of our representations by appealing to facts
too notorious to be denied, and too unmistakeable to
be misconstrued, that the Tories were the originators
and abettors of the fearful agitation which led to these
results. The Chartists were employed by Tory agents
its instruments, eminently fitted by blind rage to ef-
fect their party objects. For this purpose the Tories
turned the new Poor-law into a battery of assault
against Government, although Sir Robert Peel and
the Duke of NVellington, and indeed the principal
'-Tory members in both Houses of Parliament, lent
their aid to pass, defend, and administer that mea-
sure. Wherever an outcry against the very measure
which was alike the production of the Tories and Whigs
:in Parliament, could be employed to seat a Conservative
eaeldidate, the Tories, with an inconsistertey and hypo
erissi truly disgusting, clipped their glowing palate,
cheesed on to their task certain agents of sedition—who
would have heed hanged had the Home Department
been conducted as it was in the golden days of esta-
blished espionage—aol voted even a combination with
the most furious Radireels as a justifiable assoeiatior.
because an expedient. policy, It is now ascertained be-
Tond doubt that Frost was in ~'he confidence of the Tory
candidate's Committee, and acteL,' as their agent to ob-
tain votes for him at Monmouth at the last election ;
while at Huddersfield the Tories vo!'ed for Oastler,
,while the 7'inies and other Tory journals, with a redi-
pe ecity truly charecteristie, first supplied hint with the
material for his harangues, and then reported theol, in
a complimentary styl-, in their columns.
(From the Standard.)
It is dangermis to follow words in an undefined ia-
Itcrpretation through a course of reesonine Of this
whichwe have an example in the censure, of . some
good men are the objects, with referencee to the Netv•
'
Poor-law ; and as we ourselves, r haps, are not with-
out
biome in the particular injustice,l it becomes us
Some
to do our best to remedy it. persons of un-
_questioned sense and benevolence have spoken of the
new law as " an experiment," which it is innocent and
politic to put in course of trial.. Now, it has-been
hastily concluder!, by ourselves, among others, that
this recommendation of the experiment was accom-
panied by a conseiou.cess that the operation of the
law would be as cruel as it has proved, and as we
from the first anticipated, that it must prove ; but this
siste
is unjust. It is more candid, and more
w2sat we know of the character of the persocon ns o fnt with
whom
we sneak, to suppose that they were mistaken in the
mediat:eeffcct of the law, than to believe that they contem-
plated the certainty of its cruelties, and have miscalcu-
lated merely the effect of cruelty. In other words, we
owe it to the parties to assume that the experiment
which they recommended regarded the harshness or
abe mildness in operation of certain specified provisions
not the probable effect of a harsh treatment of the
poor, with respect to which they had no doubt.
It must always be a question of great delicacy
whether a measure of doubtful operation as regards
the happiness of eves one of our innocent fellow.
creatures shall be put upon trial ; but that a me isure
which shall with certainty injuriously affect even one
ainnocent person must not be tried, can be no question
141 to a Christian man. The Whig-Radical Arch-
Liehop of Dublin has, we know, published a pamphlet
recommending the capital execution, in certain cases,
of uo.ersti,eseioas infants and of insane persons, that is,
tvrrespondsiblT, and therefore innorent personv,
GI moral.
; but this, besides its folly as a po-
for the put. goo.
litical doetrint; Js not the doctrine of Christianity.
The
religion of
.416,,tirosPel, no less wise than benign,
directs itself to the
"vs of men with a peremptory
.
ex and love mercy," teaching
command to " tlo jus
temporary, or rather t: an-
that the lowest degree
that whatever may be the
:ur.ts to result in eve,
sight, advantages purchased
,b,ry:
of it or cruelty, they
though we look merely to human efiesets•
(From the Courier.)
By all friends of the poor, and honest haters of tha
new law framed for their oppression, if not extirpa.
,tion, the candidateship of Mr. Walter for the repre.
•Isentation of Nottingham, now vacant through the death
.of Sir Ronald Ferguson, will be hailed with sincere
gratification, and his prospects watched over with the
deepest interest. We learn, indeed, with no common
feelings of satisfaction, that those prospects are as pro-
mising as his friends could wish, and that in due season
tven'Y
expect to see the honourable gentleman and
Chri shin philanthropist restored to that place in Par.
Ilan-lent which he filled so honourably before, and
to that service is the cause of humanity and his coun•