The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUPLIC JOURNALS.

The rumour we mentioned yesterday, of Lord Hill 11 tv-
ing left the House of Lords without voting for the Lord
Chancellor's' Bill, we find, upon inquiry, to be perfectly
correct. The public will now see upon what principles
the Government act•, and be enabled from that to draw a
tolerably correct inference as to their conduct during the
remainder of the session. Lord Hill, we hear, has nu
thoughts of resigning. His military myrmidons and the
Carlton-house Club glory equally in the independence he
has shown of even a show of respect for the feelings, the
wishes, and the measures of the Government. Will Lord
Grey, Lord Althorp, the Lord Chancellor, and Lord John
Russell, truckle to the contemptuous demeanour of the
Horse Guards ?—and, if they so truckle, why should the
public expect a different line of conduct when they are
beat, as they undoubtedly will be, on the Irish Church
Bill ? The Duke of Wellington has given notice of battle
on the second reading. We understand, however,
the Tories are not all of that opinion ; there will be
a split amongst their forces—some thinking it rather
a shameless proceeding to oppose all reform in the
monstrous establishment of the Irish Church. Sup-
pose the second reading then carried, the main ptovi-
sions of the Bill will be destroyed in the Committee, or those
who voted for the second reading, in the faith that they
can take the sting nut of the measure in the Committee,
will turn round, and, joining their forces to the opponents
on the second reading, assuredly throw the Bill out on the
third. Lord Hill, if suffered longer to retain his office,may
take this line—vote for thesecond reading, and, if he finds
the Tories muster on the third, discover, from the same
advisers whose counsel he has followed on the Lord Chan-
cellor's Bill, the policy of concurring in sending the other
to the saute fate. Who but a Member of a wavering
Cabinet could shut his eyes to the evident disgrace which
awaits him, by persevering in the temporising policy
which has lately been undermining their credit with the
mass of their supporrers throughout the country ? Either
Lord Hill and Lord Fitzroy Somerset must beat their
retreat to the " Rogue's March," or Ministers will be
condemned by the unanimcus voice of the people to the
same fate in the course of another fortnight ; and much
as we have hitherto endeavoured to support them, we
shall willingly approve of their disgraceful condemnation.
It may be contendi d that the Local Courts Bill was a
measure on which Members of a Government had
a right to exercise an independent opinion and
vote ; bat it av,ar a Government Bill, and no one
could doubt was opposed as such by a factious oppo-
sition, by whom the merits of the Bill were never so much
as consiiered or cared for. Lord Hill also, as a military
man, cannot he supposed to have entertained any personal
opinion against the Bill. His defection, therefore, is un-
questionable, and ought to be resented accordingly.
Indeel, we cannot yet believe that, as a man of honour,
he will continue to incumber and degrade an Administra-
tion towards which he has thus exhibited such an un-
questionable opposition. If he does not resign his com-
mission of the Horse Guards, or if his superiors do not
cashier him, the country will say that Sir Henry Parnell
and Lord Howe are most ill-used and injured men. But
Lord Hill's sense of decency may yet lead him to resign
the office of Commander-in-Chief held under Lord Grey.
Would to God that the Cabinet could desert their enemies
and take refuge with their sincere and able friends. A
crisis is approaching in which they would find their ac-
count in the exchange!—Morning Chronicle.
In the House of Lords last night Earl Grey postponed
from Monday till Wednesday next the second reading of
the It ish Church Temporalities Bin l. On the occasion of
the presentation of some petitions, however, a preliminary
skirmish on the Bill took place, in which the Duke of
M'elington made rather a conspicuous figure. We hardly
know whether the public will receive with surprise or
with a smile, with pain or with pity, the notification that
the Gallant Duke has actually set up, to frighten others,
the bugbear which was made to cry Bo ! to him on the
occasion of the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.
and of the Catholic disabilities. Yet so it is ; the Duke
of Wellington more than insinuated that the King cannot
give his assent to the Irish Church Temporalities Bill
without violating the coronation oath ! It will be seen,
however, that this illustrious recruit of Bishop Phillpotts
has either never read, or, having read, has forgotten, or
having bot:t read anti remembered, has not under-
stood, the very plain English in which the
coronation oath is worded ; for he declared that
•' His Majesty positively swore to support the Church
of England in all its rights, privileges, and itn-
munities." What, however, his Majesty did swear
wes " in preserve to the bishops and clergy of this realm,
and to the churches committed to their charge, all such
rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto
them, or any of them." The meaning of the word 5h,.11
being explained in most English grammars, as well as in
most dictionaries, we are sure there can be little difficulty
in any one with an inquiring turn of mind comprehending
it ; and with this conviction we recommend the Noble
Duke to read the oath again. We thought that, with the
exception of here and there an old woman or a Bishop,
this coronation oath crotchet had been exploded even from
$‘ Conservative" councils ; but it is easy to see that in the
contest which is fixed for Wednesday it is to be made the
checal de bataille of the Tories. We confess, however,
that we were not prepared to find the Great Captain of
the age mistaking for a charger the hobby which Dr.
Phillpotts has so unmercifully hacked. What sad block-
heads the writers upon the English Constitution must have
been not to have found out that there were four branches
of the Legislature in England,—the King, the Lord., the
Commons, and the coronation oath I How clever of the
" Conservatives" to make the discovery now ! Who, after
this, will despair of the philosopher's stone being disco-
vered,—who talk again of the impossibility of setting the
Thames on fire ? Times.

Last night Mr. E. L. Bulwer, in a motion for papers
relative to the recent conduct of Russia towards the Turks,
gave the House an opportunity of following up that manly
and honourable train of sentiment by which so many
Members had distinguished themselves a few nights pre-
viously, on the subject of the atrocities practised by the
same semi•barbarous Power upon the Polish nation. The
motives of Russia have been plainly developed in her acts.
She provoked the Poles to insurrection through the ne-
farious tyranny of Constantine, and then employed the
insurrection, which was her own work, to the destruction
of the last vestige of that liberty which Europe and Eng-
land had guaranteed to Poland. She inflamed the war
between Mehemet Ali and the Sultan, that she might
have a pretence for interposing as an ally of ber long-
projected victim ; and has, during her occupancy of a part
of the Turkish soil, and her close intermixture with the
Turkish councils, laid the groundwork of constant in
3rigue against the Government of the Sultan, which
;he may thus undermine at leisure, and annihilate as
her own ambition and rapacity will suggest. lion.
Afembers have adopted a language towards Russia which
in one respect we as Englishmen, jealous of our country's
honour, and confident in her boundless resources and
energies, must deem to be unworthy of Great Britain.
No man, we observe, ventures upon a description of the
crimes or provocations offered to Europe by Russia, with.
out as a preliminary disavowing not merely ail desire for
war, but, in a in-inner, all belief that wac could ever be
ftwirglit of. Now, if we are anxious to avoid a war, we
might not to be so very anxious to publish the fears we
entertain of it. In truth, the meanness of such a fear
with regard to Russia is not mote impolitic than its
studied acknowledgment and declaration. If it he hoped
that the despotic Court of St. Petersburg)] should i.ttach
the least weight to English diapleasure or remonstrances,
they ought not to be accompanied by such solemn assur-
ances on our part that, after all, we intend nothing but
empty noise and menace. The necessary result at thus
putting Russia at her ease must be to encourage that very
course of violence and encroachment on our na-
tional interests which has called forth such loud
but ineffectual murmurs, and so, by an unpunished
accumulation of wrongs, to force this country
into an inevitable conflict, which more vigour
at ,36 earlier period might have saved. Russia to
England is the reverse of formidable. Both in the Baltic
and in the Rusine she is as completely at our mercy as
Turkey, unaidivl by British or French arms, would be at
hers. Stop the two maritime vents for Russian pro-
jute, and we throw her unwieldy, and sickly frame into
convulsions. It is really quite shameful to h,ar the
wretched twaddle about " shunning" war, and " dread-
ing" war, and " making all sacrifices" to avert a war with
Russia, which are so bandied about among the represen-
tatives of a free notion, as if there were no object
in view but to satisfy Nicholas that he may make
as much war as lie likes upon the British Crown
and people with impunity. Why, every sacrifice
we professedly snake for such a purpose is an in-
centive to fresh aggressions ; and all this wile the
phin truth is, that the tiist shot flied from an h:eglish
cannon would electrify this egregious and inflated bully,
that
unit expose to the win Id the it:ost en,rinous bumhug
ev. r was palmed upon human credulity and cow Irdice.
we want not war, Heaven knows, and therefore it is that
we will not play off an affectation of fears
.to which we
are in our hearts insensible. Can anything tie more
amusing than Lord Palmerston's solemnity, when le de-
clares his " implicit reliance on the good filth' of
Russia ( !) in all that regards her promises towards 'fur-
key,—of hus•i., at whose feet lie the smoking ruins
frayed and trampled Poland ? Rut Lord Palmers:. s

man of wit, and irony is one of his moat familiar instru-
ments. We wish, indeed, that the diplomatic deference
for Russia, manifested throughout the whole of his Lord-
ship's official proceedings, had a little more fully justified
the construction we have in charity bestowed upon his lan-
guage on Mr. Bolwer's motion.— Times.

Our Paper of this day contains a brief sketch of a very
important meeting—that of the sugar-refiners of the metro
polis—which took place yesterday. It appears from the
report that those gentlemen have at length determined to
make a last effort—we hope not an expiring one—for the
deliverance of their injured trade. Their object is to save
thewselves from ruin, and, in doing 90, to save one im-
portant branch of the national industry from utter extinc-
tion ; for it is impossible that it should continue six
months longer in its present state. Despairing of any
relief from Government, they have resolved to lay their
case before Parliament, and dep nd upon its merits for
its success. The attempt is certainly a bold one, but
desperate cases require desperate remedies. Their trade is
passing rapidly from them into the hands of foreigners ;
and if something be not done, and promptly done,
to enable them to compete with foreigners, they, and
their numerous operatives and dependants must sub-
mit to all the consequences of defeat. Lord Althorp
has admitted the hardship, nay, the oppression of
their case. He has admitted everything, but he will
do nothing. And why ? There are only two reasons
that can be assigned—one of them general, the other per-
sonal. We will take the general reason first. It is said
that the West India body require protection to the extent
which is ruining the sugar refiner of this country.
Nov setting aside the impolicy of legislating upon
a principle confessedly erroneous, and the injustice
of doing so for the purpose of sacrificing one
class of traders to another, we may be permitted to ask
whether the Government has not already done, or is not
now doing, enough for the West India body? Is 20 millions
of money not enough ? We do not now enter into the ques-
tion whether Parliament ought or ought not to sanction the
bargain made by Ministers with the West lndiabody, but this
we will say, that even if that body had done as much to
promote the abolition of slavery as they bad done to prevent
it, Parliament might still contrive to restrain the °vet flow•
ings of its gratitude within the modest limit of twenty
millions of money. Even upon the principle of charity,
though the vet has finely said that " it blesseth him
that gives, and him that takes," it will hardly be con-
tended that it enriches both in an equal degree. The
twenty millions, therefore, is twenty millions out of our
pockets, which we contend is enough without calling
upon us to sacrifice the interests of an important class of
traders, and of the whole public in their capacity as
consumers, to the aforesaid West India body, who are to
appropriate what we have been wise enough to part with.
As for the personal argument, which consists in a sort of
promise given by Lord Althorp, that no alteration should
take place in the sugar trade this year, it is enough to say
of it at present, that the representatives of the people have
other duties to perform than that of protecting the consis-
tency of an individual against the consequences of his own
rashness, and that, however they may be inclined to help
Lord Altlorp out of a scrape, they cannot, at least they
ought not to do so at the expense of their own consti-
tuents. The motion of Mr. Grote, however, will soon
put the whole question to issue. It would be well that
Government would reconsider the subj.tct in the mean
time, and consent to do by their own act, what, if forced
upon them by the dictation of others, will come with a
bad grace. But, however the Government may act, let us
hope that Parliament will do its duty.—Morn. Herald.