The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(PROP[ THE DAILY TAPERS OF SATURDAY.)
(From the Globe.)
The appropriate organ of the National Society, and
of the " weaker-headed portion of the Clergy," who
aided its resistance to the Government plan of educa-
tion, employs some ingenuity to gloss over its mortifica-
tion produced on finding their joint meddling repudiated
by those under whose sanction they foolishly supposed
they were acting, while raising an outcry against,the
introduction of Government inspectors to their schools.
The prelates of the Church have shown themselves
to be governed by another spirit. A wise and prudent
concession of mere abstract claims has enabled them to
lend the weight of their legitimate influence to the Go-
vernment, in carrying out what we hesitate not to de-
signate a plan fraught with inestimable advantages to
the entire population of this great empire. There is
now no reason for restricting the grant of Parliament
for educational purposes to the paltry sum to which,
while it was violently opposed, it was deemed prudent
to confine it. An amount at least bearing some pro-
portion to the vastness of the object and the urgency of
the case, ought to be appropriated by Parliament, that
the fearful presence of an uneducated and vicious po-
pulation may no longer offend the eye of Heaven, and
engender fears for the safety of the country in which
the evil at present so extensively abounds.
(From the Standard.)
On the Order of the Day for going into a Commit-
tee of Supply, Mr. Fielden moved for a Committee to
inquire bow far the inspectors and superintendents of
factories had been unduly and unconstitutionally em-
ployed by the authority of the Home Department for
the purpose of watching the meetings of the working
people and reporting them to Government. So far,
however, from joining with the Honourable Gentle-
man in the blame he has imputed to Ministers for
availing themselves of the services of the parties re-
ferred to, in procuring information of the state and
condition of the operative classes, our complaint
against them is, that they have not exercised as much
vigilance as they ought to have done in ascertaining the
state of public feeling in the manufacturing districts ;
for if they had, they would have been better prepared
to meet the emergencies that have presented them-
selves in the shape of Chartist tumults than they have
shown themselves to be. Such a course as that with
which Mr. Fielden charges the Government is not
only perfectly legitimate, but imperatively neces-
sary, and the attempt to excite odium against
the agents in such inquiries is deserving of severe
reprobation. Sir Robert Peel, with his accustomed
candour, attested, from his own official experience, the
necessity of procuring accurate and timely information
as to the designs of the disaffected, or the feelings ge-
nerally of the great body of the people. It would be
well, indeed, if Ministers were to depute some of their
employes in Ireland to report to them from time to time
the movements and dispositions of Mr. O'Connell and
the repeal army now in course of organisation under his
perintendence.
(From the Courier.)
Lord Aberdeen, according to previous notice,
brought forward in the Lords last evening his motion
for a speedy adjustment of the claims arising out of the
Spanish Indemnity Bonds, founded on a petition from
the holders, setting forth the peculiar hardships of their
case. There is no part of the immense debt of Spain,
a debt in grams which may fairly be assumed to be
beyond the means of that unfortunate and insolvent
State to deal with for years to come, for the liquida-
tion or punctual discharge of interest on which the
good faith of Spain is so Oeeply compromised, and the
honour of this Government so greatly involved.
For these Indemnity Bonds arise out of no loan or
stockjobbing transactions, where the prospect of usu-
rious advantage" may be conceived in some sort to
be proportioned to the risk incurred ; where the
money-lender exacts rates of seven or eight per cent. of
dividends as the condition of his advances ; but are in
fact the result of a composition betweals merchants
suffering from less or unjust seizures of property in
Spain, and the Spanish Government, by which less
than ten shillings in the pound was accepted in full
compensation of all claims, on the understanding of
prompt payment for part, and bonds for the remainder
with good security ; for as the compact was embodied
in a treaty negotiated direct between Spain and Great
Britain, and ratified in the usual form, the bonds may
virtually, though not literally, be regarded as bearing
the indorsement of our own Government. The holders,
in fact, may be said to have an equitable right of re-
course against the Treasury itself.