The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-15 00:00:00

liness are things so entirely inimical to the genius
of Christianity, that we are almost unconsciously
impelled to scrutinise the motives of such a start-
ling interposition. We have scrutinised it in this in-
stance, and however much our conclusions may be
opposed to those deduced from the Ministerial propo-
sition by the Right Reverend the Bishops of Ox-
FORD and of LONDON, we cannot but altogether exone-
rate them from being actuated by petty or interested
sentiments. Indeed, we could almost find it in our
hearts to admire the obliquity of judgment which
has, in the instance of these ecclesiastical Peers,
evolved such moral symmetry. ANil we should pos-
sibly feel the more inclined to utter such an eccen-
tric and one-sided panegyric, because, in the present
case, we could afford to do so with impunity. By
lauding the motives of a WILBERFORCE or a BLoM.
FIELD, we could not be taxed with deserting the
cause of free trade at a moment when its safety was
perilled, or its stability dubious. The paucity of
noblemen, whether Protectionist or Ministerial,
who decided as to the postponement of the
second reading of the Sugar Duties' Bill is,
assuredly, a sufficient indication in itself that the
mind of the aristocracy is definitely settled as to
the destiny of this and all similar measures of
mercantile reform ; that the sticklers for the
protective system know that " their game is
up ;" that the promoters of freedom to trade
are indolent, in the consciousness that the
victory may he achieved without their being required
to wag a finger. They know that the waters of com-
petition have broken through their unnatural barriers,
that they require no impulsion to flow on wards and
to fructify the world by their irrigation. Aware,
therefore, of the certainty of ultimate triumph
to that noble and humanizing cause which
it has been so long our privilege to advo-
cate, we can avail ourselves of that conviction
to express our admiration for the manifest motives of
the two Prelates already mentioned, and our reverence
for those benignant principles which were so beauti-
fully and so nobly avowed by the Right Reverend
the Bishop of OXFORD.
The Bishop of OXFORD declared that he believed
that the Sugar Duties' Bill would act " as a stimulus,
and as a bonus on that great crime, the slave trade."
Believing that, he inveighed in earnest and eloquent
language against a measure of this character—a mea-
sure which, according to his view, was to sweeten the
viands of our own labourers by the wholesale murder
and excruciating torments of the unfortunate Africans
—a measure which,: in his opinion, could only produce
us a very questionable advantage (perhaps slightly
increase the comfort of our poorer population. and
find additional employment for our manufacturers),
by bringing new agonies to the poor blacks, by
dragging millions of fresh victims across the Atlantic,
by excoriating their backs by more stripes, and
grinding them down to a state of more hope-
less and intolerable degradation—believing that
such would be the consequences of this
measure, it is not surprising that the Right Rev.
Prelate should speak in language of the most per-
suasive adjuration, that the earnestness of his fea-
tures should betoken the earnestness of his whole
soul, that the tremor of his voice should betray the
bleeding of his heart. We believe, and we most
cordially acknowledge, that we believe the Bishop of
OXFORD to be sincere. His voice, his manner, his
language were an assurance—his name was
an assurance. The most frigid sceptic could not
presume to tax with hypocrisy the owner of a name
so memorable in the annals of consistency and bene-
volence. The most heartless believer in the univer-
sal corruptibility of human nature would pause before
he taxed with insincerity a man who is kith and kin
to that illustrious philanthropist whose effigy has
been enshrined by a grateful nation in the
shadow of Westminster Abbey. A WILBERFORCE
speaking upon the slave trade is not one of those Par-
liamentary occurrences in which we could amuse
ourselves by collating the adroitness of the rhetori-
cian. It demands a more serious consideration, but,
above all, it demands that the imagination and the
nobler passions should be subservient to the judgment.
Otherwise the prestige of the speaker would be likely
to warp the latter by enkindling the former.
So impassioned were the remarks delivered by the
Bishop of OXFORD that the calm and rigid rationality
of the Marquis of LANSDOWI4E came after it like a
relief. It reminded one that nothing is so liable to
delusion as benevolence ; it said to us, "Yes, in G on's
name, let us endeavour to root out that damning vice
of slavery, and to do so most effectual and speedily,
let us adopt this measure, which is erroneously
pronounced to be its encouragement!" It required
the placid manner and the shrewd sense of a LANS.
DOWNE to counteract the mistaken fervour and con-
tagious kindliness of a WILBERFORCE. Howbeit the
Bishops have spoken generously, though injudiciously,
upon the sugar question. They have committed an
error, but an honourable and even admirable error.

Returns were on Thursday directed by the House of
Commons of the number of cases in which corpora'
punishment had been inflicted in the army in the
years 1845 and 1846, to the end of July ; the names
of the persons so punished; the number of lashes to
which the offenders were sentenced, and the number
actually inflicted. These returns are all undoubtedly
valuable, as affording correct and certain in-
formation on a point upon which the public
feeling has been fully awakened, and respecting which
the nation will no longer consent to remain in igno-
rance; but their practical value has been sadly
diminished by the unaccountable refusal to afford the
further information demanded, and by which the re
sults of the horrid practice would be fully developed.
The more important of these returns so
refused, we conceive to be the 2d, 7th, Bth,
and 10th viz., the regiments, the place of
station, and the time of the punishment ; how soon
after the punishment the man was able to return to
his duty, and at what place he was then quartered ;
whether death had followed within twelve months of
the flogging, and the date of such death; and copies of
the surgeons minutes of all such punishments, and
any subsequent observations on their con-
sequences. We do not think that it im-
plies any want of confidence in the good in-
tentions of the Government or of the military
authorities that this information should be demanded
on the part of the pecple. They form an integral
part of the legislature of the country, and are entitled,
through their representatives, to refuse their sanction
to any new enactment. The system of flogging in
the army must receive the sanction of Parliament in
each and every year, as the House has ever most
properly refused to give its assent to the Mutiny Act for
any longer period; and are we now to be told that we are,
blindfolded, to pass laws that affect the happiness, the
welfare of tens of thousands of our fellow-subjects,
that we believe to be unnecessary and unjust, pro-
ductive of the most injurious and demoralizing con-
sequences, because the demand for information would
imply a want of confidence in any man or body of
men ? If this be the case, away with the farce of
free discussion : of what service can it be if we
are not correctly informed of the premises from which
we are to draw our conclusions, the data upon which
we are to found our arguments? A state of darkness
and ignorance as to public matters may be the most
convenient for a despotic government,. but it is not
by such means o
that a free or reasning people are
to be ruled. We doubt not that it is the wish and
intention of the illustrious Duke at the head
of the army, that every possible care should
be taken that flogging, so far as it still
is unhappily retained in the service, should be
a simple infliction of punishment, leading to no future
consequences, nor to any permanent injury to the
health of the 'individuals upon whom it is inflicted,
But have not the public a right to know that the steps
taken, the precautions adopted, are sufficient for that
misled by prejudiced
purpose'! Are they not entitled to the fullest evi-
dence that the Commander-in-Chief may not be
essentially persons, and the truth kept back
from his knowledge ? There must be something
wrong in a system that will not bear the
light, that shrouds itself in darkness and mystery—
that
concealment,which i s
fbea sa
resd noon
intvreustthigaantidonju;stthiceenidoemrea
fullynd demands noot
is canvassed and discussed; the more universally will
it be approved of and assented to. Were it not for
the publicity given to the circumstances attendant on
the death of p. or WHITE, it would still be supposed
that his premature end was not in the slightest
degree occasioned, or even hastened, by the brutal
flagellation to which he was subjected; were it not