The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-01 00:00:00

ERRATUM.—In the article respecting Don Carlos's suite, yes-
terday, " embarked from Portsmouth," should hare read
" embarked for Portsmouth."

We this day present THE SUN to our readers in the
enlarged form which we promised at the beginning of
the Session. The delay arose entirely from unavoid-
able circumstances which we could not contemplate;
and the disappointment of the public cannot have been
greater than our own.
From the additional facilities which the increased size of
the paper affords, together with new type and superior
machinery, we hope to render THE SUN still more
worthy of general support, for we appeal not to any
party, but to the public at large.
It is our intention, as opportunity permits, to devote a fair
share of the paper to Literary and Scientific, as well
as to other purposes ; but as " doings' are better than
"sayings," we shall leave it to the public to judge
THE SUN according to its future deserts.

co,"
.- 11 • ntit.

LONDON,
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 1, 1834.

The third reading of the Poor Laws' Amendment
Bill stands for this evening, and the Bill will be sent
up to-morrow to the House of Lords, where it will
soon become the law of the land. We are glad of this,
because we know that its provisions will be highly be-
neficial to the people of England ; that its tendency
will be to raise the moral feeling of the labouring
population ; and that, in a word, we know of no
measure of which the country stands in greater
need at the present moment. Objections were
raised against it, by many who were favourable to its
general principle on account of the extreme severity of
the bastardy clauses, as throwing the onus of support-
ing illegitimate children on the mothers ; and we must
say that we thought it very unjust that parents should
be made chargeable for the sins or seductions of
their daughters,—but now that they have been
modified in such a way as to enable the parish to
tax the earnings or incarcerate the body of the
putative father, we can discover no grounds of just
opposition to the immediate passing of the bill. Some
of our contemporaries, it is true, object to it as a rob-
bery of the rights of the poor. Now we confess we can
discover nothing of this. It was not poverty, but indi-
gence, that the celebrated Christian statute of Elizabeth
made provision for ; and though since that time eleven
several acts of Parliament were passed on the subject,
there is not one of them which contains a clause,
enacting that families who do not choose to work shall be
supported in idleness by payments made to them
in thei own houses out of the poor rates. Under the
present bill workhouses will be erected in every parish
or union of parishes, wherever found necessary, in
which the destitute will be received, and individdals
who cannot find work elsewhere provided with employ-
ment. As to the injury which may be sustained in
feelings by those obliged by their necessities to take
shelter in a workhouse, our conviction is thai, were it
otherwise,we should soon see the rural districts of Eng-
land laid waste in consequence of the impossibility
of meeting the demands of claimants for parochial re-
lief. Take away the shame, the hunger, the thirst,
the nakedness, and the houselessness of poverty, and
no one will guard against it. It is useless to talk of
high moral feeling existing, if we destroy the source of
honourable pride by making personal dependance with-
out a wish above it, as respectable as honest industry.
The advocates of the workhouse system are accused of
making poverty a crime, and of recommending
the punishment of it as such. Now, poverty
though not a crime in itself, is certainly criminal when
brought on by vice and dissipation ; and under all cir-
cumstances, is undoubtedly a misfortune, liable to the
usual consequences. Were it otherwise, as we before
observed, nobody would think of guarding against it.
As to what is urged about the imperfections embo-
died in the present bill, they will be best seen in the
working, and means may be very easily adopted to
bring it still nearer to the proper standard. At all
hazards, anything must be for the better now, as worse
than we are we cannot be. We hope the bill will be
passed without undergoing any material future ahem
tions in its more important clauses.

We can conceive nothing more absurd than the
attempts made by the Tory party in Scotland to get
up county meetings against the Irish Church com-
missions. It is of a piece with the miserable outcry
raised two years ago to excite a feeling against the
Government on account of the Irish Education Bill,
and the failure will be as signal and complete.
On the latter question they enlisted on their
side a number of well-meaning but misguided peo-
ple, who had sincere scruples about putting into the
hands of children only selections from the Scriptures ;
and with their assistance in 1833, they carried a mo-
tion against the government plan in the General As-
sembly. Even that, however, had no effect, because
all impartial men saw that this was the result of an un-
seemly alliance between religious zeal and political ran-
cour, and so convinced were the parties of the fact, that
they durst not renew the discussion this year. The landed
proprietors, no doubt, are more sincere in opposing