The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-30 00:00:00

they receive the proffered tracts with an inward
determination not to read a line of them.

As for the authorised ministers of the Gospel
in London, they certainly cannot be accused of
insulting the wretched by any fanatical sym-
pathy for the sins or sufferings of the soul or
body. They are to be met with in the large
squares, the parks, and the fashionable pro.
menades, but never in the lanes, the alleys, and
the courts, where want seeks a last asylum, and
where squalid vice shuns the noon-day con-
course of the affluent and the respectable. Po-
pulous abodes of wretchedness and crime, and
suffering and death, could be pointed out in
London, in which the footfal of the minister of
the Gospel was never heard within the memory of
the present occupants. A salvationable soul
in London must reside in a fine house
in a respectable street, with a good larder and
a full cellar upon the premises. The
smell of good cheer is requisite to guide the
priest even to the bed-side of the dying. Mark
with what different eyes the eloquent and bene-
volent CHANNINa looks upon the true greatness
of a great city :
It is a plain truth, and yet hoW little understood, that
the greatest thing in a city is Man himself. He is its
end. We admire its palaces ; but the mechanic who
builds them is greater than palaces. Human nature in
its lowest form, in the most abject child of want, is of
more worth than all outward improvements. You talk
of the prosperity of your city. I know but one true
prosperity. Does the human soul grow and prosper
here ? Do not point me to your thronged streets. I
ask, who throng them ? Is it a low-mindeJ; self-seek-
ing, gold-worshipping, man-despising crowd, which I
see rushing through them ? Do I meet in them, under
the female form, the gaily-decked prostitute, or the
idle, wasteful, aimless, profitless woman of fashion ?
Do I meet the young man, showing off his pretty per-
son as the perfection of nature's works, wasting his
golden hours in dissipation and sloth, and bearing
in his countenance and gaze the marks of a
profligate. Do I meet a grasping multitude,
seeking to thrive by concealments and frauds ?
An anxious multitude, driven by fear of want to
doubtful means of gain ? An unfeeling multitude, caring
nothing for others, if they themselves prosper or enjoy ?
In the neighbourhood of your comfortable or splendid
dwellings, are there abodes of squalid misery, of reckless
'crime, of bestial intemperence, of half-famished child-
hood, of profaneness, of dissoluteness, of temptation for
thoughtless youth ? And are these multiplying with
your prosperity, and outstripping and neutralising the
influence of truth and virtue ? Then your prosperity is
a vain show. Its true use is to make a better people.
The glory and happiness of a city consist not in the
number, but the character of its population. Of all the
fine arts in a city, the grandest is the art of forming no-
ble specimens of humanity. The costliest productions
of our manufactures are cheap, compared with a wise
and good humane being. A city which should practi-
cally adopt the principle, that man is worth more than
wealth or show, would gain an impulse that would place
it at the head of cities. A city in which men should be
trained worthy of the name, would become the metropo
lis of the earth.

It. is by corporate rather than by individual
exertions that the health, and morals, and com-
forts of the poor of our great cities can ever be
extensively improved. The facilities of cheap
locomotion has destroyed the necessity for the
old crowding of cities. An improved police and
superior lighting, renders courts, and alleys, and
narrow lanes so many obstacles to cleanliness,
ventilation, and traffic. The squares and courts
of the 17th century were protections against rob-
bers by clustering people together. Now, in
building squares, it is not robbers, but
abundance of room, plenty of breathing-
space, that the architect is bound to care for, if
he have in view the comfort and convenience of
the future residents therein. Again, instead of
sectarian dogmas and pious fictions, the visitors
of the poor must consider in what way they can
be usefully employed, and properly self-instruct-
ed. instead of driving silly women out of their

senses with ridiculous legends about the death-
bed conversions of imaginary men and women,
those who interest themselves in their welfare
must teach them useful lessons in household
economy ; convince them of their errors by ex-
ample rather than by precept; and, by represent-
ing in their own lives the humility, and self-denial,
and charity of sincere Christians, gradually win

the least considerate to an admiration of the
spirit and an observance of the precepts of the
Gospel.

As it is quite settled that no alteration is to be
made in chi Poor law, it seeing ill-timed to dis-
cuss the subject in the press. That great desti-
tution prevails is unhappily certain; but no per-
son dreams of charging that on the Poor-law.
If relief have not been adequate to the 'wants of
the people we are not sure that, sunder the old,
system, when they were more Completely at the
mercy of their masters than at present, that it
would not have been less. We are no advocates,
however, particularly in the present state of so-
ciety, for a harsh administration of the law; but
we should much prefer a system of legislation of
which the object should be to restore to industry
independence and comfort, instead of providing
for the wants of unoccupied pauperism. We
have read many discussions in Parliament, and,
except as that of Tuesday evening might tend
to rouse in the Members feelingi of humanity,
and make them in general ashamed of oppres-
sion, seldom have we read one of less practical
importance. For one thing it was remarkable,
which the upper classes may see with regret, and
the lower with something like malignant satisfac-
tion. Mr. FERRAND and others accuse] the mill-
owners of oppressing the people, while gentlemen
of a different party retorted on the landlords.
The people will conclude that they have now in
their hands a certificate from each that the others
are oppressors. Surely those gentlemen who
provoke such exhibitions in Parliament can
never have heard of the contest between labour
and capital, and of the fierce hatred which is
nourished against the aristocracy, or they would
have been careful not to have put such powerful
arms into the hands of those they have made
their enemies. If discussion on the Poor-laws
can only give birth to such criminations and re-
criminations, the sooner, for the upper classes.,
they are wholly suppressed the better.

The Paris Journals of Monday contain but
little political news of any interest. Their in-
dignation against the Government, which they
regard as bent upon the destruction of the free-
dom of the Press, engages their attention to the
exclusion of nearly every other topic. The De-
bats and the Presse alone support the policy of
the Cabinet, but yet with reservations which in-
dicate that they would rather certain stretches
of power were not had recourse to by the Go-
vernment.

The Presse repeats its former account of the
decline of British influence in the East. In
confirmation of its statements it quotes the fol-
lowing extract from a letter from Alexandria of
the 7th inst. quoted by the Commerce :--
" You must not fancy that British influence is so
powerful here as is imagined in Europe. The Pacha is
fearful of the English ; he therefore does not act openly,
but he loses no opportunity of using underhand means of
showing his aversion to them. In Syria they are not in
an enviable situation. A red coat cannot show itself in
the country without an escort of a hundred men. If the
English penetrate into the mountain districts, they must
lake off their uniforms, and declare themselves Catho-
lics. They lately attempted to take away from the
Druses the arms they had themselves given to these
mountaineers for the purpose of insurrection, but they
did not succeed.
" Mehemet Ali is deluding both Russia and England,
because he first of all wishes to make
.himself secure ;
but he acknowledges that, in spite of her late conduct,
Prance alone possesses his sympathies, and those of the
people of Egypt and Syria.
We shall not contest the statements of the
French Journals upon this question. That ME-
HEMET Au should profess to fear the only Power
that left him at the mercy of his enemies,
when he trusted to her for support, is something
snore than improbable. But if by such braggart,
unfounded boasting as this, the self-love of the
French people is at all gratified, we shall not be
at the trouble of disquieting them.
The following mysterious statement appears in
the Temps. We must say that we attach not the
least importance to it. It appears to us a fiction,
but if true the concealed persons were very likely
thieves. In France treason assails Royalty at
noon-day encircled by the national chivalry :_-
"A few nights ago three persons got secretly into the
little park of St. Cloud, and were proceeding by st6alth
towards the palace, when they were seen by a sentinel,
who cried out " Qui vive," to which they replied "Ronde
de surveillance." The sentinel having desired them to
advance, they did so, but no sooner were they close to
him. than one of them attempted to take his musket from