The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-10 00:00:00

and the country; and the remainder, if any there
should be, will be destined to the extinction of the pub-
lic debt."

Professor SEDGWICK has addressed an able
letter to the Times in defence of the petitioners
from the University of Cambridge, the dis-
cussion of whose petition engaged no less than
three morning sittings in the House of Com-
mons. We regret we have not room for the
whole. After a consideration of the arguments
of the protesters against the allegations of the
petition, the learned Professor proceeds to notice
the protest against its principles in the following
able and conclusive manner :
" The declaration states, that in the event of the
prayer of the petition being granted, it would be im-
possible to maintain in the several colleges any uniform
system of sound religious instruction, or of wholesome
discipline, or to prevent the introduction and diffusion
of principles tending to the subversion of the church
established in these realms.' It is hardly necessary to
state, that those who signed the petition entertained an
opinion diametrically opposed to this. With which
party the truth rests time alone can determine. In
justification of our views I may, however, affirm that
dissenters have repeatedly passed through their terms
as under-graduates without creating any difficulties in
the mode of administering discipline in the several
colleges. With this discipline the petitioners ex-
pressly disclaim any intention of interfering. I wish
also to remind the members of the Senate, that
no under-graduate is compelled to attend a lec-
ture delivered by any of the professors of theology,
and that, to the best of my belief, no college
lectures on divinity have ever, within the last
thirty years, been delivered which a Dissenter of
any denomination would have scrupled to attend ; such
lectures being studiously confined to a critical exami-
nation of various parts of the New Testament, to dis-
cussions on the evidence of Christianity, and so on.
In confirmation of this, I may point out that Paley's
Evidences, Butler's Analogy, and Doddridge's Evi-
dences, have been for many years the subjects of col-
lege divinity lectures, in addition to the Greek text of
the New Testament. The subjects of controversial
theology have been carefully avoided, as entirely un-
fitted for the ordinary course of academic competition.
The best proof of what lam now stating, and one
least open to cavil, will be found in the printed papers
of different college examinations, which have been in
general circulation for more than thirty years.
" On the strength of these facts I venture to repeat,
in the name of the petitioners, that the concession of
their prayer would not, in any way whatsoever, inter-
fere with the ordinary religious instruction of the
University."
In his own behalf the Professor then proceeds
to disprove several assertions with respect to the
manner of getting up, and the time selected for
the prosecution and presentation of the peti-
tion, and then refers to the state of the Univer-
sity, and the groundlessness of the fears which
have been expressed for the safety of the Esta-
blished Church :
" I congratulate the members of the Senate who
signed the petition to Parliament on the favourable
hearing their prayer has met with, and on the sure
grounds of hope that before many months are over
their wishes will be accomplished. They have asked
for nothing but what the present condition of the
country imperiously demands, and what is at once
compatible with the honour of the University and the
safety of our ecclesiastical establishments. Under the
contemplated change, none but well-educated men, in
a good condition of life, can come among us from the
dissenting body; and from such men what cause have ,
we of fear ? I repeat, that no change whatever is ne-
cessary in our general system of instruction; I speak
advisedly, and after several years' experience as as-
sistant tutor and college examiner. Each college is
master of its own peculiar rules of discipline, and the
college endowments are, with very limited exceptions,
secured to the members of the established church.
" The spoliation of church property cannot begin
at Cambridge. If such a calamity be in reserve for
us (which God forbid !) it will either commence sud-
denly in some brutal acts of democratic violence, fatal
to all property, or be brought about gradually by the
progressive alienation of those who, from their pro-
perty and intelligence, have a natural weight in the
councils of the State. Against the former kind of
spoliation academic regulations offer no defence ; from
the latter, we must be base churchmen, and no better
than moral cowards, if we think we have aught to
fear, provided only we be true to ourselves, and waste
not foolishly our strength in defending untenable posi-
tions, and maintaining a system of exclusion opposed
to the temper of the age in which we live, and the
present tolerant spirit of English law. We affirm
that Cambridge is a university in the proper sense of
the word—a place of national education, not for the
church merely, but for all the learned faculties, a great
scientific body, and a lay corporation. Continue the
restrictions, and the faculty of medicine, perhaps also
that of law, will soon be lopped off from us ; the
University cannot bear this mutilation, and ought, by
every honourable means, to avoid the risk of it. Of
those who, as Professors, are employed in carrying on
the scientific work of the University, three-fourths at
the least are favourable to the prayer of the petition.
A few men, very distinguished in literature and
science, are neutral ; but, if I do not greatly deceive
myself, their hearts are more with us than against us.
Of those who occupy the places of highest dignity in
the University, a large majority are unfortunately
against us ; and among those who have signed the
counter-decaration are many whose names it is impos-
sible to read without sentiments of honour and re-
spect. Both parties have done what they thought for
the best ; and they are acting during times of no ordi-
nary excitement, and under very difficult and trying
circumstances, when an honest man may surely hope
to record his opinions, without calling forth a single
bitter feeling in the breasts of those who differ from
him."

I never heard a naval or military man speak
of the future but as to be passed in some dwelling which
held out the delights of growing their own vegetables
and killing their own mutton. It has never been my
fortune to meet with an individual who deliberately
planned an existence to be passed actually in London.
" The vision and the faculty divine" of imagining how
your fortune is to be spent when acquired always goes
off the stones.--New Monthly Magazine.
An old man named Frantz Brimann, Pre-
tending to be the Wandering Jew, was arrested lately
at Erlach, in Franconia, where he had availed himself
of the pious credulity of many who lodged and enter-
tained him. On being searched there were found
upon him 25,000 florins in gold, which he had the im-
pudence to assert were lent to him by Jesus Christ, to
defray the expenses of his journeys, but the police
magistrate replied that the real wandering Jew never
had more than five sous in his pocket, and consequently
took charge of this fund till due inquiries could be
made.—French Paper.

REASON WHY A MAN SHOULD NOT BE
HANGED. —The magistrates of Inverness have applied
to the Lord Advocate to take some steps for getting
the burgh relieved of the expense of executing crimi-
nals. They mention to his lordship that they have
discharged their executioner, and that they will be
subjected to very serious expense by a man at present
in custody on a charge of sheep-stealing should he be
sentenced to be hanged !

So different from hostility (during the Pe.
ninsular war) was the conduct of both nations, that
the French and British lived upon the most amicable
terms. If we wanted wood for the construction of
huts, our men were allowed to pass without molesta-
tion to the French side of the river to cut it. Each
day the soldiers of both armies used to bathe together
in the same stream, and an exchange of rations, such
as biscuit and rum, between the French and our men,
was by no means uncommon. A stop was, however,
soon to be put to this friendly intercourse ; and it hav-
ing been known in both armies that something was
about to be attempted by Marmont, on the evening of
the 12th of July we shook hands with our cris-a-cris
neighbours, and parted the best friends. It is a re-
markable fact, that the part of the river of which I am
speaking was occupied on our.side by our third divi-
sion ; on the French side by the seventh division.
The French officers said to us on parting, " We have
met, and have been for some time friends. We are
about to separate, and may meet as enemies. As
friends we received each other warmly, as enemies we
shall do the sante." In ten days afterwards the British
third and the French seventh division were opposed to
each other at the battle of Salamanca, and the seventh
French were destroyed by the British third.— United
Service Journal.