The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-19 00:00:00

‘,llll.

LONDON:
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1841.

The Lords did not meet yesterday, having ad-
journed over till Friday, but whether it were to
have their house set in order, or to recruit them-
selves after theit great labours on Tuesday, we
are not informed.

The Representatives of the people met at the
usual hour. Petitions were presented against Lord
STANLEY'S Bill, and for_Lord MORPETH'S, against
the window tai, against lay patronage in the
Church of Scotland, &c.

Sir F. BURDETT withdrew his notice of a mo-
tion to erect a monument to Sir SIDNEY SMITH,
more capable hands having taken it up.
_ _

Mr. O'CowNELr. having learned from Lord
PALMERSTON that the treaty with Texas had
been sent to that country for the ratification,
which was expected to take place in January,
postponed his inatign relative to Texas for a fort-
night. The Hon. gather gave notice of a mo-
tion about the issuing of stamps to News-
papers, with a view of showing that frauds are
committed.

In reply to Mr. PAKINGTON, Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL stated that the ordinance issued by the
Governor and Council of Lower Canada, relative
to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, was laid on the
table, and that it was contrary to Act of Parlia-
ment to print such ordinances. •
Lord ELIOT called the attention of the House
to the Report of the Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the merits of Mr. &vow
HARRIS'S invention for protecting ships from
lightning, which spoke of that invention in
very high terms; he adverted to the ne-
glect which Mr. HARRIS had experienced from
the Admiralty, spoke strongly in favour of re-
warding scientific merit, and moved for informa-
tion as to what means the Government had
adopted for giving effect to the Report of the
Commissioners.

Mr. MORE O'FERRALL explained at some
length, that after all the trouble that had been
taken to investigate Mr. SNOW HARRIS'S inven-
tion, it was doubtfiirivhether it were the best.
The Admiralty had been led, by the experiments
which had been made, to adopt a mixed
plEin borrowed from -Mr. HARRIS'S invention.
a Mr. EDGE'S invention, and the practice on
board French ships; an- d. this scheme was pre-
ferred to that of Mr. HARRIS, because it did not
cost for each vessel one-fifth of the sum which
his conductors cost. He did not deny that Mr.
HAnnis had great merit, but the Admiralty
doubted the propriety of rewarding every inven-
tor.

Lord INOESTRE thought the expense should
not stand in the way Qf adopting Mr. HARRIS'.'t
conductors. He ascribed the reluctance of. the
Admiralty to acknowledge Mr. HARRIS'S merits
to political motives.

Mr. WARBURTON said there were two ques-
tions: why was Mr. H RRis's invention not adopt-
ed, and why was he not rewarded? He disap-
proved of the Commission having inquired into
the merits of other inventions; he thought Mr.
HARRIS'S plan a good one, and that Lord ELIOT
had made out, a case for granting a reasonable
compensation to that gentleman.

Sir ROBERT PEEL was of opinion that the Ad-
miralty were taking on themselves a serious
responsibility by not acting on the recommenda-
tion of the Commissioners they had appointed.
The merits of Mr. SNOW HARRIS had been
amply tested on board the Beagle, during a ser-
vice in all climates of five years, when that ves-
sel had been struck by lightning, but had re-
ceived no damage. He reserved his opinion as
to the amount of compensation which Mr. HARRIS
ought to receive.

Sir THOMAS COCHRANE warmly espoused
the cause of Mr. HARRIS, and described his
conductors as calculated to save many

lives and much valuable property. It cer-
tainly must be a fearful thing for a single
ship sailing over the boundless deep to be struck
by lightning, and never more be heard of. If Mr.
HARRIS be the inventor of a means of prevent-
ing such disasters, he is worthy of high honour
and a large reward.
Sir R. INGLIS was glad that all parties con-
curred in praising Mr. HARRIS.
Sir C. LEMON, who entered into the scientific
merits of the case, and Captain A'CotraT, took
the same side.
Admiral ADAM admitted that the invention
was a valuable one, but the Admiralty thought
Mr. HARRIS'S demand of 7,0001. too large. He
denied that political motives had at all entered
into the business ; for he knew nothing of Mr.
HARRIS'S politics, and some of his own friends
at Devonport had recommended Mr. HARRIS'S
plan for adoption. Finally the motion was
agreed to.
Mr. PAKINGTON moved for leave to bring in a
Bill to alter the election of county coroners. At
present every freeholder is entitled to vote ; he
proposes that the list of registered Parliamentary
voters shall also be the list of voters for coroners.

Mr. HUME objected to disfranchising the 40s.
freeholders, and though he would not oppose the
motion, he would oppose the Bill at every subse-
quent stage.

Mr. Sergeant JACKSON was in favour of nar-
rowing the constituency.

Mr. WARBURTON approved of so much of the
measure as facilitated taking the poll, but if the
design of narrowing the constituency were per-
sisted in, he hoped the House would give it the
most dogged resistance.
Mr. GALLY KNIGHT thought the officeof coro-
ner required regulation. Leave was given.
Lord KEANE'S Annuity Bill was read a second
time, after Mr. HumE had requested that a state-
ment of his services might ,be laid before the
House.

The House adjourned at Eight o'Clock.

It is generally admitted, to borrow the words
of a paragraph we quoted yesterday, that Pusey-
ism "is a deq) and powerful scheme of thought."
"It is earnest and uncompromising. It disclaims
and disdains expediency." It is embraced by
many sincere and clever men. They believe
their purpose to be good, and they are stern in
following it out. For their doctrines they claim
the highest reverence, and for themselves they
demand the highest authority next the Deity.
The vigour of old Papal Rome is said to lie in
the cohesion and boldness of the pretensions of
Puseyism. Whatever is incongruous with itself
it smites and spares not. It claims to be a god
upon earth, and commands intelligence like a
slave. Puseyism is an iron mace. " The prin-
ciple would carry it, though it be the principle
of the Monk HILDEBRAND." The attacks on Sir
R. PEEL justify these remarks. It is a power of
thought sprung up in the Church, and likely to
expand far beyond its bounds.

Such a stern, uncompromising creed, enter-
tained by men of conscious integrity and con-
scious power, must have great influence on the
Church. The poor drivellers of the ordinary
parsons, with their ready cut-and-dry formal
prayers and creeds, which they repeat mechani-
cally, without faith or devotion, can never make
head against the sincere and invading Puseyiies.
Political Bishops and political Rectors may con-
tinue for a season to hold their sees and their
livings, but lukewarmness will never stand against
the enthusiastic monks of Oxford. Whatever
maybe their effects on the country, they will rend
the Church to its foundation.

Perhaps amongst Dissenters we may find
that uprightness of heart, and that enthusiastic
spirit of devotion which are necessary to make
head against Puseyism : we shall not find them
in the Church. The enthusiasm there all be-
longs to the Puseyites. But the Dissenters have
no organized means of union, and they will be
unable to resist the prog,ress of this new fanati-
cism. There is considerable danger, therefore, that
Puseyism, in spite of the power which statesmen
possess over the Church, will obtain a speedy
and a conspicuous triumph. Under a new form,
and another name, the dominion of Old Rome
will be revived, and secular knowledge will be
trampled under the hoof of priestcraft.
With such a prospect before us it is to be re-
gretted that the antagonist principle, of priest-
craft, free thought, is not more encouraged by the
public. Opinions are sometimes frowned down,
not because they are false, but because the
priests have denounced them. The sincere
and enthusiastic lovers of truth, and of secu-
lar knowledge, get dishearten by the op-
opposition even of those they mean to serve, and
the field is left to the Puseyites. They cannot
be successfully combated by those who adopt the
same principles. The true antagonists of Pusey-
ism, who are not to be found in the Church, and
perhaps not in the ranks of the Dissenters, are
in fact enchained by the public whose cause they
defend. Some persons may think it a just retri-
bution, that the people who have suppressed the
free expression of thought, should be doomed to
wear the heavy yoke of Puseyism.

We cannot conceal from ourselves that the
Tories have some advantages in the Parlia-
mentary struggle about to take place relative to
registration and franchise in Ireland. They have
never admitted the existence of a necessity either
to extend or define the franchise ; their oppo-
nents have admitted and have proposed to amend
the evils of the registration. Lord STANLEY'S
may be an unjust Bill, but it is an advantage that
he proposes to remedy what the Whigs have
admitted to be an evil. Their own 13:11, in fact,
admits the evil, bnt proposes a different remedy.
At the same time, it proposes both to define and
extend the franchise, which the Tories have not
only never admitted to be requisite, but they
have strenuously maintained is not wanted.
They have always resisted the extension, and in
that they have been supported by many Whigs.
In a party contest, such as that which it is under-
stood is to commence on Monday, these are
great advantages.
Moreover, the plan of the Tories has been
known, and has rallied about it the whole of their
party. They fought for it last Session—they will
fight for it this. To leave it, would be to add
inconsistency to desertion. Lord MoaPEnes Bill,
however, so far as the definition of the franchise
goes, is a novelty. The Whigs have not yet, as
a party, declared their adhesion to it, and many
of them might without inconsistency,, and pro-
bably without disgrace, find in its enactments a
pretext for not supporting it. So short a time
has yet elapsed since it was promulgated, that
public sentiment could not be formed and orga-
nized to support it; and some timid Whigs in
the House, wanting the support of their consti-
tuencies, may be at best only lukewarm in its fa-
vour, or may be inclined to resist it. All these are
disadvantageous circumstances for the Ministers;
and if they win the fight, it will he from the
essential justice of their measure, and the in-
crease of the statesman-like virtues of cahn con •
sideration, and a preference of the public benefit
to the interests of party.

In fact Lord Monprrn and his party have only
the on y
the justice of their cause to stand on. However
much the Irish may like the Bill, they have had
no opportunity since it was published of con-
gregating in masses and declaring their adhesion
to it, violently as they have denounced Lord
STANLEY'S Bill. Had the principal provision
been made known six months ago, and canvassed,
as Lord STANLEY'S Bill was, during the whole of
the vacation, the probability is that the people
of Ireland would have petitioned for it almost as
one man. Their voice demanding it cannot be
heard by Monday, and their friends in the House
of Commons will want that most powerful moral
support.

This Bill of Lord Morpeth (says the Dublin Evening
Post) has beck hailed in this country as the great charter
of our rights—as the bulwark erected by an honest Admi-
nistration against the encroachments of Toryism—and from
one extremity of the country to the other it will form the
rallying cry for vigorous and simultaneous exertion amongst
the peop!e.
The crisis is one which involves the security and exten-
sion of our electoral rights, or their abrogation altogether
—the continuance of impartial government, or the resump-
tion of Orange tyranny—the maintenance of tranquillity
or the revival of discord, under cireutnstancea which rio ra-
tional being can reflect upon without pain and anxiety•
The Irish people are now called upon to take their part
in the strug,:gle, to defend what they have already gained
by years ci incessant exertion, and sacrifices and suffer-

ings which only tbeir invincible devotion to.liberty enabled
them to make and to endure.

To have any effect on the debate they ought
already to have spoken out on the Bill—they
ought to have taken their ground, and, unmoved
by Tory threats of treason and rebellion, unless
they submit to Orange tyranny embodied into
Tory law, they ought to have declared before-
hand that they would not submit to be the vic-
tims of Lord STANLEY'S disappointed malice.
The
.only advantage they now have, though that is
a most important one, is the justice of their cause.
So alarming have become the threatened evils of
discontent in all parts of the country that the
Tories, we believe, begin to be afraid of the
people, and, like LordELLENnonouox, (headiest
the Constitution itself should fall a prey
to their continued exasperation. Such
a consideration may prevent many Tories from
opposing Lord MORPETH'S Bill. Unfortunately
for its success it has been too short a time
known to have enlisted the feelings of the Eng-
lish in its behalf, and we are afraid that the
Irish will find, under apparent apathy, an addi-
tional reason for asserting that we, the Liberals
in England, care little or nothing for Ireland.
That conclusion would be a mistake, though ap-
parently justified by the public here not having
had time to appreciate Lord MORPETH'S Bill.
The English are not, in general, fond of novel-
ties; they require to be convinced, and the pro-
cess of conviction is slow, that a new measure
will be useful before they yield it their hearty
assent and support.
We have unhesitatingly pointed out some of
the disadvantages of the Whigs in this party
contest ; but the greater will be their merit, and
the greater the value of their Bill, if they succeed.
A silly and contemptible policy of Jurining coun-
ter with the wishes of the people has long been
the pride of the Tories ; and to persist in that
course must be equally disastrous to the country.
We hope that they will at length turn from such
evil courses, and consider the gratification of the
just wishes of the people as the only means of
successfully governing the country. But if they
should still resolVe to do evil, it must be the care
ofthe Liberals to prevent them, and soothe the
people of Ireland by carrying Lord MORPETH'S
Bill.

We yesterday referred to the Danish claim of
the elder Messrs. BARING, which has been paid,
and proceed now to contrast their case with that
of poor HAYWOOD, one of the shipping
claimants, whose claims the CHANCELLOR of the
UXCHEQUER struggles with might and main to
oppose. The British traders to Holstein had
been warned, in the autumn of 1807, not to go
to the ports of that country. Nevertheless,
many cargoes of colonial produce, amongst which
that in which the Messrs. BARING had an inter-
est, were, under a neutral flag, adventured to the
port of Tonnigen, and were seized on arrival by
the Danish authorities.

' The traders to the Baltic, on the other hand,
were at the same period encouraged to pursue
their voyage to the ports of that sea, both by the
Admiralty at home, and by Admiral Lord GAM-
BIER at Copenhagen. Sir HOME POPHAM, Cap-
tain of the Fleet, assured Captain HAYWOOD,
that he might proceed up the Baltic in all safety,
as all had been settled with the Danes, and
that should hostilities again arise, sufficient warn-
ing and protection would be given for the Baltic
trade. But as hasbeen repeatedly stated, contrary
to all promise, and contrary to the usual practice,
the Sound and Baltic were prematurely deserted
by every British vessel of war, so that poor
HAYWOOD lost his ship and his property, and
was thrown into prison. The Messrs. BARING
were then, and are now, immensely rich. Poor
HAYWOOD was, in 1807, a master and owner,
of a vessel, and for his station in life in compara-
tively comfortable circumstances.
.What has
resulted from the refusal of the Government to
respect his just claims ? Why, within the last
six years, himself and his family have been twice
driven, by absolute destitution, to take shelter in
a workhouse ! The Messrs. BARING are rich ;
They disregard the warning of the Government.
Their property is seized. They demand and re-
ceive compensation as a matter of course. HAY-
WOOD is not rich, but he is industrious and enter-
prising. With the implied sanction of the Go-
vernment he risks his all, and loses it through the
fault of that very Government. He, too, de-
mands compensation, and a CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER, a member of that very BARING
family, tells him that he must end his days in the
workhouse!

The House of Commons having, however,
thrice decided in favour of the class to which
HAYWOOD'S claim belongs, one would naturally
expect that opposition, from merely honourable
motives, must cease. Thank God we do not
live in a country where the caprice of an indivi-
dual is paramount to law and justice. The CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER spoke on Tuesday
night of the active canvass carried on by the ad-
vocates of the claims, but he omitted to notice how
pressing his own solicitations were on the occasion.
We can understand how he induces Messrs.
GOULBURN, PEEL, and Co., to join him, though
we cannot conceive by what sort of canvass he
has persuaded others calling themselves Liberals,
who had previously voted for the claims, now, on
this last occasion, to belie their previous votes.

We have more than once commented on Lord
NORMANBY'S Bill "for the better drainage and
improvement of buildings in large towns and vil-
lages," but the subject is far from being ex-
hausted ; and as it will affect more or less all
classes, it cannot be too much pressed on their
attention. It no doubt is well meant, and con-
tains a number of useful provisions, but were
it to pass into a law in its present shape, it would
entail great distress, and occasional ruin on
those for whom it is chiefly intended. One great
defect of the Bill consists in making the occupier
liable in the first instance for expenses
that ought to be paid by the landlord. Clause
2, for instance, provides that the occupier or
owner of a house deficient in drainage, " shall
construct a brick or stone barrel drain," &c., on a
notice of fourteen days, and unless the order of
the Commissioners is completed with reasonable
despatch, the Commissioners shall construct the
same, and recover the expenses by " distress and
sale of the goods and chattels, either of the owner
or of the then present or any future occupier of
such house." This would indeed give employ-
ment to merciless attorneys, and spread dismay
among thousands of the inhabitants of London
and other large towns. But few of the occupiers
of 101. or 12/. houses could raise money within
a fortnight to complete a work that might cost
more than a year's rent, and a sale of their scanty
stock of goods and chattels would in many in-
stances drive them-rand their children to the
workhouse. This comes of the rich legislating
for a class about whom they know so little. The
Bill, it is true, provides that the payment of ex-
penses may afterwards be enforced against the
owner, but what remedy is that for the poor,
ruined, and broken-hearted tenant ? Too much
power is already given to landlords, tax-gatherers,
and others, over the little furniture of people
struggling for bread, and to increase that
power would create more distress than all the be-
nefits of this Bill would counterbalance. Make,
therefore, the landlord, or the collector of the
rent, alone liable, and should there be any diffi-
culty in reaching him (which we cannot con-
ceive), let the Commissioners be authorised to
receive so much of the rent as shall cover the
expenses. Why complicate the process, too,
by throwing the .burden on some future tenant ?
The Commissioners have the house to come
upon, and is it not a more rational and more hu-
mane mode of proceeding to raise the amount of
expenses at once on the property, than to send the
myrmidons of the law to plunder an unfortunate
tenant for the culpable negligence of his landlord?
The lower classes in this, as in almost every in-
stance, will not be fairly represented. The Com-
missioners will be appointed from the class above
them, being the proprietors of houses, or con-
nected with them, and will therefore be disposed
t once to pounce upon the tenant, without
troubling themselves, or indeed having any wish,
to discover the landlord. The Marquis of NOR..
MANBY knows nothing of the condition of the
many thousands that inhabit the poorer localities
of the metropolis, else he would not sanction a
measure so well calculated to harass and ruin ,

1t.C141
• •
,4 . • •
ky'Z • 1
,--- • 4 s. tio, • ,
• 0 1 RF 1.1 m 7• 4u: 111,,1. •
...AV 'it•s•
•