The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-24 00:00:00

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LONDON,
SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 24, 1834.

The House of Commons last night dis-
cussed eleven more clauses of the Poor Laws
Bill. Lord ALTHORP, as he gave notice on
a former evening, withdrew that part of a
clause which gave the commissioners the power
of committing for contempt ; and also agreed
to the suggestion of a member to limit the
duration of the act to five years. The former
alteration we entirely approve of. The latter,
though some appear to attach importance
to it, does not in the slightest degree affect
the bill. If, when passed into an act, it
is found beneficial, it will be renewed as
a matter of course, and, if it does not work
well, it will be altered, whether limited to five
years, or passed without any limitation. All
parties in the House concur in the necessity of
the measure. There perhaps never was, on
any question, such a general and decided feel-
ng, and the go )d temper, the absence of party
spirit, and the total disregard of the attempts
made to excite popular clamour, are, in the
highest degree, creditable to the legislative cha-
racter of the Commons. Instead of being
surprised at one or two of the tenth-
rate men setting themselves forward as the
opponents of the bill, the wonder is that some
score have not yielded to the temptation held
out by a certain portion of the press. They
might thus have had their names blazoned forth
n the newspapers, and been loaded with praise

for the noble stand made against the " most

tyrannical, most unconstitutional, and most
atrocious measure ever proposed in any age or
nation." They have the patriotism, however,
to reject such offers. They prefer their duty
as legislators to such hollow praise and
short-lived reputation, and support the
measure because they conscientiously believe
it calculated to abate one of the greatest
evils that ever afflicted a country. All, it is

true, have not acted so. There are some
striking exceptions, and Sir S. WHALLEY
is one. His reasoning on the subject may
well make the inhabitants of Marylebone proud
of their representative, for he has discovered
arguments against the measure which had
hitherto lain concealed, not from the public
press only, but from every other member of an
assembly which contains more men of intelli-
gence and useful experience than any other
assembly in the world. The hon. member
contends, that so far from the system of
poor laws being bad, it is one of those institu-
tions which had raised the country to prosperity,
and that if it were abolished country gentlemen
would be reduced to mere ciphers. But his
eloquence and his arguments are of such a racy

character, that it is only justice to give his own
words. Speaking of the magistracy, he says:—
" No doubt formerly they had been accustomed to
hear of abuses, but the schoolmaster had been abroad,
and in his perambulations had visited even that class
of persons ( Laughter) ; and the country gentlemen
had been among others much improved. ( Continued
laughter.) Instead of being now amused by the yelp-
ing of curs, they were soothed by the dulcet strains
of their own females. ( Laughter.) For what reason
were they about now to insult and degrade in the eyes
of their country and of Europe that useful and intel-
ligent body of men ? On what ground were they now
to be dispossessed of the authority which they had
hitherto so beneficially exercised ? Why were they to
be branded as incompetent to its exercise? The bill
did that ; and if ever it passed into a law, country
gentlemen of landed property throughout the kingdom
would soon dwindle into mere ciphers in their re-
spective neighbourhoods. ( No, no.) He maintained
it ; and they would soon find it to their cost. Was
the present a fit time, when the middle class of society
was treading on the heels of the higher, when discon-
tent sat lowering on their brows, and when some
strange feeling rankled in (their hearts, to which
they knew not how to give force and expression
without being irritated—was such a fit season for ex
perimentalizing on those institutions to which the
people were attached, and which had brought the coun-
try to its present state of boasted prosperity ?"
To be serious, we have no objection to such
rhodomontade occasionally, provided it were
not accompanied with something worse ; but
there can be no excuse for describing a mea-
sure calculated for the best interests of the poor,
as one which will increase the evils of poverty,
and for holding it up as an incentive to a servile
war, and as a ground for rekindling those fires
in the country which are nearly extinguished.
Such a mode of argument may safely be described
as "most unconstitutional and most atrocious."
The people in general have too much good
sense to be led away by such wild declamation ;
but may it not have the effect of instigating
the ignorant and the wicked to commit deeds
which will bring them to an untimely end? We
would, therefore, appeal, not to the sense but to
the mercy of those who have recourse to such
arguments, and call on them, as they regard
their own interest, the interests of the country
at large, and, above all, the welfare of the
poorer classes, to remain silent if they can de-
vise no other mode of opposition.

A long and important discussion took place
ill the House of Lords last night with respect
to the LORD CHANCELLOR'S bills for Church
Reform. The heads of the church (great plu-
ralists and non-residents), together with their
relations and political friends, from Lords HA R-
ROWBY and WHARNCLIFFE, and the Dukes of
CUMBERLAND and WELLINGTON, to Lord
WYNFORD and the PRIMATE of all ENGLAND,
object, consistently enough, to this plan of re-
form, as they did to all plans of Parliamentary
reform, until the nation was tired alike of ex-
cuses and promises, and enabled Lord GREY
to carry, in spite of boroughmongering com-
moners and Tory lords, spiritual as well as tem-
poral, a reform worthy of the name.

These anti-church reformers seem to have
forgotten, or they have never learned, or they
affect not to know that the clergy, from the
highest to the lowest, are not proprietors but
trustees, not masters but servants ; trustees for
the poor and the church—servants of the grat
body of the faithful, who have chosen repre-
sentatives to act on their behalf in all that con-
cerns the temporal affairs of the church as well
as the state, and to whom they have delegated
the power of disposing of their joint and com-
mon property in the tithes, the churches, the
glebes, and the
.parsonage houses in such
manner as they may deem the most fitting to
advance . and bring the ends for which the
churches were erected, the houses and glebes
provided, and the taxes called tithes imposed.
But surely the House of Lords, if they
wish to maintain the Church—if they desire to
be the guardians of the national interests, and
conceive that it is for the common good that
an established church should exist, cannot
desire that this work should be left undone,
until the nation with one voice demands,
as in the case of Parliamentary reform,
the abolition of patronage, and the applica-
tion of the ecclesiastical revenues to the pur-
poses of education, or indeed to any other
national purpose. If they were to resist
reform, or endeavour that it should not be real,
and therefore satisfactory to the intelligent and
virtuous portion of the people, they could ex_
pect no less than that the House of Cbmmons
would be compelled by their constituents to take
up and deal with the subject in a manner which
they would probably be little disposed to
approve, but which, if once commenced, it
would be in vain to resist.

There may be differences of opinion about
mode and time, but there can be little question
as to the propriety of the measures themselves.
They are felt to be necessary by the friends of
the Church throughout the nation, and by none
more than the great body of the clergy—that is,
those who do that work which is done by the
clergy, and who have nothing to hope for but
in the right employment of the ecclesiastical
revenues, and the restoration of the Church to
its primitive simplicity,and the clergy to a station of
' true respectability, honour, and usefulness.
Although the introduction of the LORD CHAN-
CELLOR'S Bills might not have been looked for
at this moment, there can be no doubt that they
have been discussed and are approved by the
Government, as they will, if they provide for a
destruction of all pluralities, and the residence
of all the clergy, be satisfactory to the nation
at large.

Lord SUFFIELD warned the ecclesiastical
lords last night, as the lamented Lord KING
used to do, but we fear without much effect.
The Tories, the Waverers, and the Bishops,
are again united ; but the clergy are divided,
and the nation nearly unanimous. The esta-
blishment will be reformed or destroyed, which
must depend very much on the conduct of the
lords spiritual.

If a charter be not granted at once to the
London University, it will be owing to the ne-
cessity which exists for some alteration in its
constitution, and the deficiency of its funds.
The first may be remedied by the council, with
the aid of the LORD CHANCELLOR, and the
second the Dissenters may, if they will, supply•

The shares are now to be bought at a very
low price : let every congregation of Dissenters
subscribe for and purchase one share. They
will thus have the power in their own
hands, and a charter cannot - be refused
to them. They will, by this means, secure
not only funds and a charter but students,
and these will bring eminent professors. When
the education it affords is at once cheaper and
better than that afforded at Oxford and Cam-
bridge, a preference will surely be given to the
London University. The Dissenters may also
unite the funds of the three colleges of Homer-
ton, Coward's, and Highbury, and apply for a
charter to enable them to grant degrees in
theology. This will give them the benefit
without the risk, and the nation will, we trust,
look to the reform of all its public schools.

Brussels papers of the 22d inst. have been
received, but they contain no news of any in-
terest. The funeral of the young Prince is to
take place to-day.

The Allgenzeine Zeitung of the 13th May
states that the majority of the Ministers present
at the Congress of Vienna have applied for an
audience of leave, preparatory to their return
home. The result of their deliberations is not
known ; but we may infer the confederation of
the Western States has, in a great degree, de-
feated their machinations.
VIENNA, MAY 13.—Five per Cent. Metalliques, 99;
Four per Cent., 89% ; Bank Shares, I,27o.—Allge-
mcine Zeitung, May la.

It is believed that a fast-sailing vessel, which
left Lisbon the night before the Espoir, but
has not yet arrived, must have been sent off
with the ratification of the treaty. The Times
has the following from Aranjuez, May 13 :

" The ratification of the quadrilateral treaty for the
pacification of the two kingdoms of the Peninsula by
his Imperial Majesty the Duke Regent of Portugal,
has this morning been officially communicated by M.
de Sarmento to the Court of Aranjuez, and to the am-
bassadors of France and England. The copy of the
treaty which bears the Portuguese ratification is, with
the exception of a single word, precisely identical with
that originally negotiated and signed by the plenipo-
tentiaries of the four powers in London. In the
newly ratified treaty the Usurper is described as the
Prince,' and not as the Infant' Don Miguel. As
this variation will not be attended with any delay in
the execution of the treaty, it is only worth notice
as an indication of the spirit in which the one brother
is regarded by the other."

THE FUNDS.-(THIS DAY.)

CITY, T IVEL VE 0' CLOCK.

(From the Philadelphia Paper of April 29. )
Extract of a letter, dated Para, March 24 :—" Business
generally is at present so wretchedly bad, and produce so
enormously high, owing to the recent currency laws, that
one does not know what to do. The greater part of the
copper money has been called in by the government, and
before many days pass the remainder will also be, for which
paper is to be issued. How the change will act upon the
commerce, time can only determine. From the Ist of
May all duties are to be paid half in paper and half in sil-
ver, which will have the effect of lowering produce to less
than half its present nominal value."