The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-29 00:00:00

sions go no further than to enable any person,
or body politic or corporate, or joint stock com-
pany, to apply to the Lord Lieutenant for
authority, by commission, to construct a pier,
quay, wharf, or landirig place, upon, or adjacent
to, any navigable river, lake, or estuary, ins
Ireland.

Now, we in England would be at a loss to
understand how the navigation of .any river,
lake, or estuary, was to be improved by the
er.,:t:on of piers, quays, wharfs, or landing
places. It may be desirable for particular per-
sons to have such piers, quays, or landing
places, erected at particular places ; but we
cannot see how the navigation is to be thereby
improved. We suspect the bill is a job, or
that, like its author, it professes to do one thing,
when it means to do another.

Lord kULGRAVE was in the House of
Lords last night, looking extremely well, and
receiving the warm congratulations of his friends.
No one could have acted better, or conferred a
greater service on his country as well as
the colony. Jamaica is very tranquil, and
there remains no doubt that the plan adopted
by the Government will work alike advan-
tageously for the colonists, the slaves, and the
mother country.

A Bill is now before Parliament to regulate the
salaries of the officers of the House of Commons,
and to abolish the sinecure offices of Principal
Committee Clerks and Clerks of Ingrossments.
It proposes, upon the termination of the existing
interests in such offices, to reduce the salaries
as follows :—The Speaker (whenever the House
shall again elect a Speaker) from 6,000/. to
5,000/. ; the Speaker's Secretary, 5001. per
annum, in lieu of all salaries for perquisites and
emoluments whatsoever. The Clerk of the
House of Commons, 2,000/. ; Clerk Assistant,
1,500/. ; Second Clerk, 1,000/. ; Sergeant at
Arms, 1,500/. ; his Deputy 7001., all in lieu
of annual grants.

The sinecure offices of Principal Committee
Clerk and of Clerk of Ingrossments are to be
abolished, compensation being made to the
holders.

These salaries are sufficiently ample, and
there can be little doubt that the duties of the
respective offices will be quite as well performed
when the officers are paid by salary. The
sinecures are to be abolished. We hope the
Government will look carefully into all the
public offices, and put an end to jobbing of
every kind. If it were to get rid (though it
were at some expense) of all those persons who
are the avowed friends and tools of the Tories,
it would inspire great confidence throughout
the country.

If Roman Catholics had been enlightened by
the new morality on oaths and subscriptions,
no Emancipation Bill would have been neces-
sary to qualify them for seats in Parliament.
Why should they not have signed the declara-
tion against transubstantiation, the worship of the
Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, and other
articles of their religion, if it had been under-
stood that subscription did not imply belief or
acquiescence in the thing subscribed ? What
should hinder a Jew from swearing on the faith
of a Christian, if these words mean nothing more
than an engagement to consider the proof and ad-
mit the doctrines of Christianity when convinced
of their truth ? If such latitude of interpre-
tation be admitted, what is there binding on
the conscience in an oath ? Let our Courts of
.Tustice be on their guard when young men
from Oxford, brought up on their new princi-
ples, come before them as witnesses. In Scot-
land, before a man is admitted to give evidence,
he must purge himself from malice. In Eng-
land, it might be a fit question to a witness—
whether he had ever subscribed articles which
he had not read, understood, or believed ? and
if he could not answer in the negative, should
he not be committed, like the sceptical ur-
chin the other day, till he owned his fault, and
expressed his repentance for the transgression ?

The number of Spanish grandees entitled to
sit in their own right in the upper chamber of
the Cortes will not exceed 60 or 70. Perhaps,
under the circumstances, it is fortunate for
the cause of liberty that the ecclesiastics and
the titulos are to be selected by the Crown.
No one who has read the introductory paper to
the decree can doubt that those who pre-
pared it are well disposed to the. cause of
constitutional liberty, and they will doubtless
select only such as will be favourable to the
young QUEEN, and to those free institutions
on which she must rely for her security. We
find that those Spaniards who have been exiled
will be able to sit in the Cortes as representa-
tives of the people, even though they may not
have resided in Spain for two years, provided
they are in other respects qualified, and elected
for the provinces in which they were born.

We learn from Madrid through Paris that
favourable accounts had been received from
Portugal. A reconnoissance had been made by
2,000 Spanish troops in Portugal, and General
Rom', was to follow with 7,000 more.

The supplement to the Madrid Gazette con-
tains an official account of SANGUANENA'S
movements, dated La Guada, April 15. It
appears that his troops were very near taking
Don CARLOS, who was on his way from Pin-
hel. The entrance of the QUEEN'S troops was
unobstructed, all the authorities having fled.
They seized three coaches, three waggons, and
two printing machines belonging to Don CAR-
LOS, and some important letters. RODIL was
setting out for La Guada.

The Frankfort Papers contain a copy of the
official note of M. D'OLFIERS, the Prussian
Charge d'Affaires in Switzerland, in which he
seconds the representations made to the canton
of Zurich by Sardinia, Austria, and the adja-
cent states of Germany and the German Diet,
relative to the Polish Refugees, whom he con-
demns, and wishes the Burgomasters to dis-
It is said that the latter are

countenance.