The Sun.
London, England, 1834-04-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In recurring to the subject of Combinations and
Trades' Unions, we find at every step matter of
fresh astonishment how it was possible for Mr.
Joseph Hume, wrong headed as lie is, to see
anti represent the question between masters and
men, under the very erroneous aspect in which
he exhibited it a few nights ago to the House of
Commons. Instead of hardships being im.
posed by the masters upon the workmen,--in-
stead of the average condition of the latter being
one of low wages and oppressive work, all the
best information that can be obtained, and all the
most authentic evidence, go to establish it as a
fact no longer to be controverted, that in ninety-
nine cases out of an hundred the aggression is
offered by the journeyman, and is marked and
characterised by a degree of insolence, injustice,
and selfish inhumanity, of which no other class
of proceedings observable throughout society
afford an equivalent example. A pamphlet
has been sent to us, under the title of
" Character, Object, and Effects of Trades'
Unions," every page of which teems with intelli-
gence equally curious and startling in relation to
the designs of these confederated workmen, the
dexterity of their machinations, and the vast
extent of their power. The spirit and principle
by which they are directed appear more formi-
dable and more criminal from the details which
are here unfolded of their history. There is
scarcely one of the evil practices which we im-
puted to them on Saturday—whether the object
was to extort, to intimidate, or to revenge—
which has not been minutely developed by the
well-informed author of the above-mentioned
pamphlet, with this wholesome deduction—
would wr.: might say useful warning—drawn
from "it—viz., that a strike for wages, attended
by its ordinary adjuncts of outrageous violence,
a:.id deafness to reason, has never yet in any in-
Mance succeeded, but has invariably, from the
influx of fresh journeymen to supply the place
of those that struck, ended in the compulsory
submission of the latter, and in either their sup-
plication for employment on worse terms
than those which they had first rejected, or
'the absolute refusal of the masters to hire

them on any terms, and their consequent and
irremediable ruin. But, as we have said
already, if the journeymen will not take all
past experience as a warning against the future
infliction of such atrocious tyranny upon their
less turbulent brethren,—if they will so far
trample on the just free agency both of the
masters and of their fellow-workmen, as to in-
terfere by force to prevent any exercise of the
rights of property on one side and of industry
on the other, and to discourage parties whom
the law declares to be independent from doing
what they judge•best for their reciprocal inte-
rests by the honest application of their respective
means, we must say that it may not be safe for
the general welfare of the community to leave
such delinquents to the natural though tardy
consequences of their own misdeeds. We have
received a long letter on this subject from Mr.
Foster, well known for his active and, we be-
lieve, very upright and humane exertions on
behalf of the working classes in many of their
disputes with the masters. Mr. Foster's corn-
munication merits attention from the earnest
and kindly spirit which breathes through it ;
but viewed as an argument on behalf of the
trades' unions, we really cannot see that it in-
validates any one of our observations as to the
criminality of their proceedings, and the
dangerous character -of their whole system.
It is not because some particular select ves-
tries have behaved, as is probable, with gross
harshness and injustice, that the _liberty and
property of rich and poor are to be alike in-
vaded by brutal violence, to which thousands
of men, in parishes no otherwise connected
than by a community of guilt, are eager and
reckless parties. Yet we can find nothing more
in Mr. Foster's letter, than a narrative of the
malpractices of the Knaresborough vestry in a
single year, and an admission that, since the
law of 1824, the journeymen have not always
been immaculate I Of course, this multitudi-
nous tyranny must in the long run bring de-
struction on its authors, for even in its utmost
latitude of success, it can only force masters to
shut up their manufactories, and thus leave the
victorious journeymen, instead of working on
moderate terms, to do with less from the poor
rates. The following passages from the pamphlet
we have named, will be read with interest by
those who can understand the nature and ten-

dency of the measures therein referred to. The
' reader will not fail to remark on the modesty of
one condition imposed .on the masters, viz.,
that " the men should not be
.fined for bad
work, or for not conforming to the regulations
of the mill." Our first extract relates equally
to Scotch and English combinations—the well-
educated, moral, religious, exemplary Scotch
The second describes exclusively those in the
north of England, which have succeeded in
spreading their spirit and principles to other
parts of the county. To the sitting of a
"builders' parliament ' we invite especial notice:
" In Scotland the strikes of the spinners have been
fully as frequent and determined as in England, and
attended with a greater degree of violence. Mr.
Campbell, the sheriff substitute in Renfrewshire, states
in his evidence before the Combination Committee of
1825, that from 1820 to 1823 the union perpetrated
numerous assaults, and even frequently attacked the
lives of those individuals who refused to join them ;
that there were at least four instances of deliberate at-
tempts at assassination, and two to burn cotton-mills.
This combination was then put down by the resolute
conduct of the masters, who united in publishing a no-
tice that they would stop all their mills till the union
was diss3lved, and this, at least for a time, had the
desired effect. Not an unusual mode of attack in
Scotland on those who oppose the wishes of the union
is by firing in at the windows during night, and also by
throwing vitriol, through which atrocious crime several
have lost their eyesight, and been otherwise irreme-
diably injured. One man confessed that he had been
employed to assassinate four of the masters who had
incurred the displeasure of the union, and for the at-
tempt he was to receive one hundred pounds, with an
addition in case of success. One of the largest cotton
manufacturers in Scotland was so annoyed by these
combinations in 1830, that he transported part of his
capital across the Atlantic, and established a factory
at New York. At present the spinners' union in
Glasgow is in full vigour, and the employers are held in
complete control ". No one is allowed to spin with-
out first paying a fine of it., and when last year some
female spinners had been engaged in Messrs. Dennis-
toun's mills, at one-thirteenth less wages than were
given to the men, a deduction which, if we consider
the inferiority of their skill, was probably fully justi-

" * The following are the latest accounts of outrages arising
from strikes :—` Two most diabolical scenes of outrage were
perpetrated at Wasgow on Monday last (December 16, 1833).
A woman named Mary Macshaffrey, cotton-stretcher, while
about enuring the close leading to her residence in Charles-
street, Calton, was met by some men, one of whom wickedly
threw into her face, and on her person and clothes, a quantity
of vitriol, whereby her face was severely injured, one of her
eyes was destroyed, and she has since been confined under
medical treatment. On the same day, about six o'clock in
the morning, while Mr. Robert Millar, foreman of the Lance_
field Spinning Company, was on his way from his own house to
the Company's factory, he was suddenly attacked and cruelly
and severely struck with a heavy and sharp weapon, which
cut through the crown of his hat, wounded him on the head,
and felled him to the ground. It is supposed that murder was
the intent of these ruffians.'—Scotsman, Dec. 21, 1833.",

feed, the union besieged the factory with a mob ofi
7,000 persons. The proprietors, on applying for aid,
received the assistance of two policemen ; they were
consequently obliged to come to terms with their as-
sailants, when a compromise was entered into, and
they were allowed to employ 12 women, but on the
condition that they should be paid at the same rate as
the men, and that one of the rioters, who had been
taken prisoner, should be permitted to escape.
" The committee of the Spinners' 'Limon in Man-
chester seem invested with almost absolute power, and
in the true spirit of despotic tyranny, frequently exer-
cise their authority in ordering strikes without the
smallest regard for their fellow-workmen, who suffer
by them. One instance has been given in the case of
the Hyde spinners of their having compelled the men
to leave work against their inclination, and the follow-
ing is a somewhat similar account given by Mr.
Chappel, a respectable Manchester manufacturer, of a
strike that took place in his mill, and by which he was
brought to the verge of ruin. It was given in evi-
dence before the Factory Commission :

" I will relate the circumstances of the last turn-
out, which took place on the 16th of October, 1830,
and continued till the 17th of January, 1831. The
whole of our spinners, whose average wages were
2/. 13s. 5d., turned out, at the instigation, as they
told us at the time, of the delegates of the union.
They said they had no fault to find with their wages,
or their masters, but the union obliged them to turn
out. The same week three delegates from the spin-
ners' union waited upon us at our mill, and dictated
certain advances in wages, and other regulations, to
which, if we would not adhere, they said neither our
own spinners nor any others should work for us again.
Of course we declined, believing our wages to be
ample, and our regulations such as were necessary for
the proper conducting of the establishment. The con-
sequences were, they set watches on every avenue to
the mill night and day, to prevent any fresh hands
coming into the mill, an object which they effectually
attained, by intimidating some, and promises of sup-
port to others which I got into the mill in a caravan,
if they would leave their work. Under these circum-
stances, I could not work the mill, and advertised it
for sale without receiving any applications, and I also
in vain tried to let it. At the end of twenty-three
weeks, the hands requested to be taken into the mills
again on the terms that they had left it, declaring, as
they had done at first, that the union alone had forced
them to turn out. The. names of the delegates that
waited on me were Jonathan Hodgins, Thos. Foster,
and Peter Madox, secretary to the union.
" What advance of wages did they require ?—lt was
considerable, but I don't remember the exact sum ; and
the regulations required were, that the men should not
be fined for bad work, or for not conforming to the re-
gulations of the mill.
" Have you ever had turn-outs before ?—Yes,e two ;
in a former turn-out of the spinners we were waited on
by a man named Doherty and Jonathan Hodgins, two
leaders of the Union, who, after examining our wage-
book and the machinery on which the men worked,
stated that the wages were fair and the machinery
good ; and they ordered them to their work again."

" One of the most extensive unions in the kingdom
is that formed by the workmen in the building trades ;
it has been peculiarly active during the past year, more
especially in the north-western manufacturing districts,
and may be said to have exhausted all the resources of
combination in an endeavour to gain its end. In the
spring of 1833 this body commenced operations in
Manchester, Liverpool, and the neighbouring towns,
by serving a requisition on the masters, which de-
manded an abandonment of the practice of erect-
ing buildings on 'the system of contracts. Of
late years a custom has been introduced of mas-
ters in some single department of the building
trade entering into contracts with those who em-
ployed them, by which the contractor bound himself
to furnish whatever was required for the construction of
the whole edifice. Thus, in the majority of cases, the
masters were not immediately engaged by the cus-
tomers, but by a middleman or agent, who contracted',
for the erection of the entire building, and hence arose
the ignorant outcry among the workmen, of which our
history offers such repeated instances, that the due
profits of their labour were abstracted by those who
were the channels between the producer and the con-
sumer. The masters had been led into this practice
by the expressed wish of their customers, to whom it
was obviously of the greatest convenience, since it
enabled them'to obtain the estimate for any work from
a single person versed in such calculations, who would
be responsible for its completion at the computed price,
and it removed the liability to deception and inaccu-
racy in reckoning the expense which must have ensued
from an application to five or six persons in different
trades, unconnected with each other. The masters,
however, had no particular desire to continue this sys-
tem, and most of them complied with the request of
their workmen to lay it aside. By this conduct, they
showed their disposition to meet the wishes of the men,
and the accommodating spirit by which they were ac-
tuated will appear the more strongly if we consider
the imperious mode in which this unreasonable. request
was made to them ; as a specimen of which we give a
letter that was sent to Mr. Holmes, a respectable Li-
verpool builder :
" Liverpool, April 11, 1833.

. , .
" Sir,—ln consequence of an information received:by our
society, that your jo in Canning.street is a contract job, we
felt ourselves in duty bound to furnish your men at that job
with a notice to that effect, and in consequence of such con-
tract to leave that building directly. You will please to under_
stand that previous to their return we require to see your con-
tract in our club-room, to be examined by our committee ap-
pointed for that purpose. When we receive this information
we will be happy to be, Sir,

" ' Your most obedient humble servant,
" ' The Operative Societies of Bricklayers'
" ' CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.'

" These concessions, however, so far from reconcil-
ing matters between the respective parties, only caused
fresh demands to be made on the part of the workmen.
The committee of the Union issued a series of regula-
tions, requiring the masters to abide by certain rules
respecting the equalization of wages, the number of
apprentices they were to take, the use of machinery,
and a variety of other matters, all more or less restric-
tive, and consequently injurious to the free transaction
of business. The masters, who presumed to disobey
these laws, which one of the letters assures them are
like those of the Medes and Persians, unalterable,'
were either obliged to submit to the fine arbitrarily im-
posed upon them by the Union, or an edict was issued
by that body to the workmen of any 'refractory mas-
ter ;' the consequence of which was that he found him-
self at once deserted by his journeymen, and of course
unable to complete the contracts and other work then
in progress.'t A few instances of the mode in which
this interference was exercised will best show the cha-
racter of the union. Mr. Leatham, a master mason
at Liverpool, having discharged a workman from his
employ, the committee of the Union suspected that he
had done so with a view of punishing the man for
his supposed activity in managing the affairs
of the combination. They accordingly sent him
a letter ordering him to appear before the
committee the same evening, and to give up the name
of the person who had communicated to him the infor-
mation respecting the part his discharged workman
had taken in the Union, and declaring that the whole
of his men should instantly cease working if he refused
obedience to this order. Mr. Leatham returned for
answer, that the reason imputed to him for turning away
the man was wholly untrue ; but this was deemed unsa-
tisfactory by the committee, and next day he was left
without a single workman. Messrs. Patteson, master
masons at Manchester, discharged a couple of men
because they had refused to work at a building at which
bricklayers not belonging to the Union were employed.
They received in consequence a long remonstrance
from the society, from which the following is an ex-
tract :—' It is considered that your conduct towards
Robinson and Whitaker (the men in question) is quite
inconsistent, and to be brief, unless you take them again
into your employ, on Saturday, the Bth inst., at one
o'clock, all your hands will withdraw themselves on
that night from your service, and so remain until you
do reinstate the abovementioned Robinson and Whita-
ker. And further, that each and every one in such
strike shall be paid by you the sum of 4s. per day for
every day you refuse to comply. Messrs. Patteson of
course refused to comply with this order, and the ensu-
ing day every unionist in their employ left them.
" Many other absurd and tyrannical restrictions on
their employers were attempted by the builders' union.
The painters published a declaration, which stated that
they have ' come to one unanimous determination not to
work for any gentleman, at any job whatever, who
finds his own materials, or does not employ a regular
master in the trade to find the same.' The lofty and
imperious tone assumed in their communications with
the masters brings to mind the grandiloquent edicts of
Chinese dignitaries, while it shows the opinion they
entertained of the extent of their power. We con-
sider,' says one of these despatches, ' that as you have
not treated our rules with that deference you ought to

" t Extracted from an account printed by the Manchester
masters."

have done, we consider you highly culpable, and de-
serveto be highly chastised.' The commands to cease
Ivorking, issued by the committees of the Union, were
in every case implicitly obeyed ; neither the conscious-
ness of the folly of the step, which many must have
felt, nor confidence in the good-will or judgment of
an employer, prevented any one from joining in the
strike, and in many cases the mutual respect that had
been engendered by 30 or 40 years' service under a
single master was found too weak to prevent a wdrk-
mm assisting in these tyrannical proceedings against
his employer.
" Under these circumstances, the masters, finding
that concession was of no avail, and only served to
encourage fresh and more unreasonable demands, while
serious impediments were placed in the way of their
business, determined to employ no workmen except
such as should sign a declaration that they did not be-
long to a trades' union. The men, as might have been
expected, refused to comply with this demand ; in
consequence of which a general turn-out ensued, and
for more than six months the vast building operations,
commonly carried on amidst the immense and increas-
mg population of Manchester, Liverpool, and places
in the vicinity, were almost entirely suspended. Some
idea may be formed of the magnitude of the effects re-
sulting from this proceeding when it is stated that the
consumption of bricks in Liverpool was instantly re-
duced from 1,000,000 weekly to 20,000; and a master
builder, who was called as a witness in a prosecution
that took place in that town a few months back, stated,
in the course of his examination, that he had paid
11,0001. less in timber duties, and 8001. less in duties
on bricks, that year than the year before, owing to the
stoppage in the erection of buildings. The returns to
the revenue from the excise in the quarter succeeding
the strike, show a decrease, on comparison with the
same quarter in the preceding year, of 183,7401. ; and
many ominous reasons were given at the time to ac-
count for this deficiency. The conduct of the Builders'
Union readily and satisfactorily explains the cause of
the diminution ; for if we consider that the excise on
bricks of the poorest description is ss. 10d. a thousand,
and that the duty in Liverpool would on the reduced
consumption of this class of building materials have
fallen off 3,430/. weekly, that this was the result on a
single article in a single town, it will be seen that this
turn-out fully explains the reduction that took place in
the quarter in question ; indeed, it seems probable,
that had it not been for this circumstance, the revenue
returns in the excise would have shown a considerable
excess.— Times.

Whatever may be the result of the struggle
for communicating the full benefits of Univer-
sity education to the dissenting youth of Eng-
land, it would be unwise in the friends of libe-
ral concession to take for granted that the cham-
pions of monopoly will yield the ground other-
wise than inch by inch ; or that extreme obsti-
nacy, and we are bound to add, great contro-
versial ability, will not be called forth in defence
of " the Church" and her exclusive dominion.
Oxford, as might be expected, appears in front
of the battle. We have just got sight of a
voluminous pamphlet, and so far as we can yet
judge, an acute and able one, by the Rev. W.
Sewell, Fellow and Tutor of Exeter, written
against the claims of the Dissenters, on the
question of admission in any sense or form, even
as undergraduates, within the College walls. It
would be impossible' here to discuss one-tenth
of the topics which have been handled by this
reverend gentleman, or indeed to notice them ;
but it is essential to say of their common cha-
racter, and of every statement and argument
employed through the book, that their invariable
&sign, if not always their logical tendency, is
to vindicate the exclusive and repulsive spirit of
the University of Oxford in all its parts,—to
prove that, in plain English, religious instruc-
tion, according to the creed, the forms, and dis-
cipline of the Chiirch of England, was from
the beginning, • and ought to be for ever, the
single, unchanged, unmodified object and pur-
pose of the whole system of that vast establish-
ment, and that any admission of the youth of
other sects, Protestant or Catholic, would be
incompatible with it. It is true that the great
and leading use to which the opportunities -Of
instruction afforded by Oxford were turned, was
in distant ages the education of the clergy.
When priests had assumed to themselves not
merely a dominion over the other world, but
a practical and official supremacy over the
transactions of every secular Government
throughout Europe—when priests were almost
the only persons qualified to act as statesmen,
the desire to perpetuate such a monopoly of
temporal power might be some excuse on
worldly grounds for those churchmen who
founded colleges or governed them, confining
the advantages they were capable of yielding to
the clergy. But since the lay community
has, for two centuries, shared largely in
the acquisition of those intellectual and moral
qualities which fit men for the management of
great national affairs,—since priests have been
shoved back from their political prominence, and
remanded to their ostensible station as ministers
of religion merely,—does the rev. author of this
pamphlet persuade himself that the Universities
of England are to be longer guided by the same
narrow maxims of selfishness or prejudice as
when the priesthood was everything, and the
nation nothing ? Is the whole kingdom to be
forced into the church, or banished beyond the
precincts of science and of classical learning ?
This monkery will not nowbe tolerated. Nobody
dreams, as Mr. Sewell is pleased to imagine, of
" separating" education from religion, or of
placing the slightest barrier to the advancement
of religious knowledge, or to the cultivation of
a spirit of Christian piety. For both ends the
dissenters would still possess their existing faci-
lities and appliances. But let us ask the rev.
gentleman how will the sons of Dissenters be
injured in their religious character by the near
contemplation of an establishment fraught
throughout with the spirit, and subjugated to
the laws, of that church of whose supremacy
he is the earnest advocate ? He, at least, can-
not consistently avail himself of such an ob-
jection. Does he not suppose that the parents
of those youths may be safely trusted in that
respect ? And yet they petition anxiously for
the dangerous privilege of exposing their
children to the contamination of the Established
Church. Nor, if the rev. author may be trusted,
would the fear of proselytism to the doctrines of
our church be altogether chimerical, as affecting
the undergraduate dissenters. The most bigot-
ted and zealous entrapper of souls among the
Catholics never avowed, in terms more resolute
or boastful, the design to make converts of all
who should fall in with him, than does the Pro-
testant tutor of Exeter, in one of the following
passages of his pamphlet :
" As a part then and portion, and by far the largest
portion, of goodness, and as the means of producing
goodness, we cannot consent to part with our religion.
For this reason twice a-day we assemble for public
prayer, not as a mere form or a rule of discipline, but
because those who framed our statutes, and many, if
not all, who conform to them, believe that the duties
of the day are nothing but as consecrated by God; be-
cause though a careless discharge of such an act deadens
and hardens the heart, a right and faithful attempt to
fulfil it is one of the best means of perfection. If men
on entering their chapel will compel their attention to
I rest on the objects before their eyes, and the words
put into their mouths, their thoughts by degrees will
slide into that frame and temper of mind from which
prayer will naturally flow. And if this exertion is kept
up throughout the whole course of our church liturgy,
twice every day they will practise all the good thoughts
I and feelings which constitute a Christian life. We
do not withhold this opportunity of great good from
those who are willing to embrace it, because those who
persist in inattention necessarily turn it to evil. On

the same principle, our statutes command that the or-
dinances and articles of our faith should form an essen-
tial part in our weekly instruction. In the college
to which I belong, probably in many others,
nearly a third of our regular lectures is devoted exclu-
sively to religion ; and no man leaves us without having,
passed through a certain course of reading, Axed ac-
cording to his own powers, in the history, the evi-
dences, the ethics, and especially the peculiar doctrines
of the Bible, as asserted in our articles of faith. If
you attended at the public examination of the Univer-
sity, you would find these points not only insisted on in
a separate branch, but constantly connected, in propor-
tion to the talents and acquirements of students, with
all their other studies,—the history of the Bible with
the history of heathenism ; the criticisms of scholars
with the language of the Testament ; the ethics of
Plato and Aristotle with the moral doctrines of the
Gospel ; and the theories of ancient philosophy
with the tenets and distinctions of our church. All
this is done upon the belief, that in proportion as we
give a young man knowledge, we must give him at the
same time something to correct and to guide it. It is
done because we hold religion to be the best of wis-
dom, and Christianity the best of religions.
" But, on the same principles, there necessarily fol-
lows what has so often been lamented, and what I trust
will never be removed---that we have little liberality
in religion. We do not think our articles of faith
mere subjects for the understanding. We are ex-
tremely reluctant to accede or to change a single point.
We do not think it a matter of indifference, whether
students issue from our hands Presbyterians or Metho-
dists, Calvinists or Baptists, Unitarians or Churchmen.
If liberality means that we would not injure, would not
persecute, would not willingly even think harshly of
those who differ from us,--if it means that, sensible
of our weakness and fallibility, we would not stigma-
tize or judge them ; if it means a willingness and plea-
sure in seeing them sharing with ourselves the social
advantages of the state ; and if it means that we leave
to God, the judge of our hearts, to decide upon their
good and their evil, and rejoice in the hope of meet-
ing hereafter with thousands who differ from us here ;
if this be liberality, we are, I trust, liberals. Without
such liberality, our religion would indeed be poor.
" But liberality has another sense, of which I hope
we are not guilty. Articles of faith are not with us
matters of indifference. They are articles of morality.
Even as positive commands we regard them with awe
and veneration. But as stating and fixing the relations
from which our virtues are to flow, we consider their
definiteness and minuteness with an exact and scrupu-
lous superstition. A slight, an almost imperceptible
change in the position of an object will totally alter its
effect upon the organ of sight ; and a slight and im-
perceptible change in the position of any of those
objects which God has revealed and arranged to act
on our religious affections, may entirely disturb and
disarrange them. The Deity, the Trinity, and the
Church, all these are set before us in certain peculiar
distinctions. In almost every case we can discern the
value and importance even of the minutest feature.
But without this we know their purpose ; and by the
best light our reason can afford, would set and fix them
in that form and order in which God himself seems"o
place them."

" So long, then, as we regard religion and Chris-
tianity as parts of our morality, and instruments of
our correction (and when they cease to be so regarded I
know not what value they retain), so long the slighest
article of faith connected with any such view must be
to us necessary and essential. We can admit of no
compromise, no latitude, no comprehension, no indul-
gence in acts, whatever be our indulgence in thought.
And therefore when young men are brought here and
placed in our hands for education, we wish to make
them not merely learned, but good—not merely good,
but religious—not merely religious, but Christians—
and not merely Christians, but churchmen.

" Is it necessary for me now to explain why, con-
sistently with her principles and duty, the University
of Oxford cannot and ought not to consent to the ad-
mission of Dissenters to its body?
" Even if you would send us your sons, and permit
us, as we surely should . endeavour, to attempt their
conversion, we should be reluctant to bring within our
walls such elements of religious dispute.
" But if their conversion is prohibited, we will not
consent to take the charge. We will not affect to edu-
cate, where the great end of education is excluded.
We will not pretend to control, when the great en-
gine of control is taken from our hands. We deny
the possibility of educating men as Christians, upon
any wide comprehensive plan, which shall unite all
sects by excluding all distinctions. Natural religion
—that is, religion without faith, or repentence, or an
atonement, or a sanctifying spirit, or a visible church,
—this may be taught ; but with what effect the heathen
itov‘stEilit,world,,oaiiiiirlirininygitelalihisbpaociloaaifsind answer., We are not heathens,
not undertake to become the priests of nature."
Here we find it distinctly acknowledged, that
the one primary object of a " national" univer-
sity is to make churchmen of its members ; that
conversion is as much a duty as it is held to be
by the Popish inquisitors ; and that, in fact,
the rule at Oxford is, " no proselyte, no dissent-
ing pupil." Then let us ask, was ever anything
in the world more audacious, more selfish, rapa-
cious, morose, and tyrannical, than for men who
shut the doors of Oxford against all but their
particular creed, raising a clamour against the
humble prayer of the Dissenters to have a char-
tered University for their own children ? Times.
There was a time when to every charge of
culpable negligence, or something worse, made
against ministers, relative to the unresisted in-
crease of the power of Russia, the Treasury
journals used to oppose the close and intimate
union between England and France as a coun-
terbalancing stroke of policy—the stay and
anchor of European liberty and independence.
Over and over again did we caution our Whig
ministers not to trust too far the professions of
Louis Philip and his Doctrinaire Cabinet.
We told them that, in relying upon the sin-
cerity of the French government, they leaned
upon a broken spear that might pierce their
rfoune
oordc,kuot., 1
itn(eli
iTerii hroi
far-sightedeeF,
h,
reLoefi
doi
crshdi
praises,si
possible
allies.
stuaoc rnls/emdem i
treacheryge i
I re-echo si
,ohf
set
euincredulity
journals
thehoo
ue:T r
wis-
dom 1
teuaihaasli
esszt
as a sort of idol on whom the hopes of
as to foreign policy, ought to rest ;
the protector of European civilisation and in-
dependence—the tutelary genius in whom the
sages of Downing-street placed their trust for
the ready and zealous assertion at all times of
liberal and enlightened principles against the
aggressive ambition of the barbarian of the
North ! In the meantime what was Louis
Philip doing towards realising such sagacious
anticipations of our statesmen and their obsequi-
ous journals ? He was busily engaged in crushing
liberty at home, and in courting the smiles
of that foreign despotism, which, from its
throne in the frozen deserts of Scythia, seeks to
dictate laws to Europe. In both objects he has
partly succeeded. Incessant prosecutions and
arbitrary acts of power have almost broken
down the liberty of the press in France, to
which he owes the sceptre of the Barricades.
He is endeavouring at this moment to suppress
public meetings as effectually as Russia could
desire, and to put the mind of all France into
the safe-keeping of his political police. Though
his title to a throne is revolutionary, he has so
exercised the power which he obtained by false
pretences from " the men of three days' as to
be treated almost on the footing of a quasi-1
legitimate by those despotic sovereigns who
were at first very much inclined to meet every
advance to be received into their company with
sullen disdain. Even the Imperial Calmuc,
who never recognized him, or admitted the tri-
colour into his dominions until the revolution
of the ill-fated Poles made it expedient to do
so—even this modern Herod, the destroyer of
little children, around whose throne rises the
reek of the patriot blood ; even he has lately
deigned to inquire after the health of Louis

Philip, and to say that, his life concerned not
France alone, but Europe ! Great was the joy
at the Tuileries when the " Citizen King," the
pledged Chief Magistrate of a monarchy with
republican institutions, found himself thus
complimented by the great enemy of Euro-
plooopfe
aaegni
Russia
utt
hcismisevi
eiael iyz
uaeasnpt in
dOOO
nfmoTuuacunrhrdlmel freedom.ayib,noi
uas
tnredrsonut
op
ootlunhtre
uptoraorckto designs
i oa.
msaedrocriarlepreolsaetdionosa ian
bed
de
ofL ervoasnest:
unOdiusrtuArbmedbabsy-
diplomatic cares, while Count Orloff was ob-
taining for his master an assignment of the
Turkish empire. The publication of the con-
tents of the " Secret Treaty" showed to what
purpose extravagant salaries were paid to our
diplomatic representatives at Constantinople.
It was the old story of the chief of the Em-
bassy doing nothing, and the others assisting
him. At least, if any thing were done to
counteract the projects of Russia by the Eng-
lish Minister to the Porte it still remains a se-
cret. Our Foreign Secretary sent out a fleet
to the Archipelago just time enough to—sail
back again, while the Russsan flag floated and
still floats in indisputed sovereignty over the
Dardanelles. Long time, as we said, were our
Ministers in opening their eyes to the designs
of Russia, and a longer time have they been in
arriving at a suspicion of the double game of
policy which has all alone, been played by the
treacherous Court of France. At length they
have thought it necessary to bestir themselves to
countermine the plots of Russia at the Tuileries,
and for this purpose has Lord Durham been
sent on an extraordinary mission to Paris.
If the result of his mission be as futile as
that which he made with so much pomp to
St. Petersburgh, he had better have stayed at
home ; the advantages will not repay the ex-
pense. That a struggle is now going on in
Paris between the Russian and English interests,
is certain. Yet why should our government
find it necessary to send an additional repre-
sentative there to oppose the Russian Ambas-
sador, if the professions of close and faithful al-
liance which Louis Philip made to our Whig
Ministers were now believed to be sincere ? No,
the fact is, our ministers have come to the
knowledge of that which they should have dis-
covered long ago, if they had any sagacity, and
it is that Louis Pnilip has been playing a double
game. Therefore Lord Durham is sent to try
if he can detach the fox of Orleans from his un-
natural union with the Russian vulture. The
Constitutionnel says," M. Pozzo causes the
smallest movements of Lord Durham to be nar-
rowly watched; and when this diplomatist went
on Saturday, accompanid by his ambassador,
Lord Granville, to M. de Broglie, M. Pozzo
had preceded them several hours." Thus it
was at Constantinople ; Count Orloff was al-
ways up and doing some hours before our am-
bassador thought of making his toilette. It was
his practice to be beforehand with the Sultan,
or Reis Effendi, whenever he knew that the
English ambassador was to have an audi-
ence. The Russian diplomatist understands
and acts upon the vulgar adage, which says that
" the early bird gets the worm." The hours of
Lords Durham and Granville as well as those
of Lord Ponsonby, appear to be too aristocratic
for men of business. The Russian diplomatists
take the start of them both at Constantinople
and Paris ; they have half the day's work done
before our representatives are wide awake. Who
can wonder at the result ? The Constitutionnel
goes on to say, " To what tend all these move-
ments ? What does Russia demand of our Ca-
binet ? What means this respect and attach-
ment for a Crown so disdained and looked down
upon only some months ago ? At what point
does Russia aim ? We repeat, M. Pozzo
fears the effects of the revelations to be made
by Lord Durham. Up to this time lie had ar-
ranged his plots, and had endeavoured, by his
intrigues, to dissolve the strong and intimate al-
liance of France with England ; but all this he
may now fail in, and how is he to extricate him-
self from this embarrassment ? How is he to
reply to official documents ? How is he to
answer copies of despatches which the infidelity
of some Russian agents has placed in the hands
of England ?" According to what is above
stated, the English Ministers have only been led
to suspect what was going on in secret negotiation
between the Courts of St.Petersburgh and the Tui-
leries, from the circumstance of some Russian
agents betraying their trust. But, supposing that
to be true, will the Russians be unprovided with
artifices to meet the exigency ? Will Louis
Philip and his Doctrinaires be less deceitful to
the representatives of England than they were
on the subject of "free-trade ? " Pozzo and
the Citizen King understand each other better
than Lord Durham imagines. The Constitu-
tionnel states that Lord Durham is everywhere"
well received ; and having so said, immediately
follows it up with the somewhat contradictory
statement that "he does not meet from the
Doctrinaire Ministry the same loyal and frank
assent to his liberal ideas, and in, favour of the
alliance of the two nations." Now as the Doc-
trinaires are the chosen Ministers of Louis
Philip, the Ministers who are used to extin-
guish the principles of the revolution, it would
not be reasonable to suppose that their senti-
ments on the subject of a close alliance between
England and France differ from those of their
master. They are only a little more frank than
Louis Philip himself in evincing their pre-
ference for a Russian to an English connection,
and in regarding with more favour despotic than
liberal principles. The fact is, the English
Government cannot unite itself in close alliance
with thewa present
and
t dboeunwithout
i te
disunitingbe enlightened
Ie r
policy,
osceyl,f Government
if there
fromth e arliberal,
biof
France
anye r
al
scpo policy which the Whigs have not yet re-
nounced.—Morning slFaorcanite:
Herald.

THE MIGRATORY HABITS OF EELS.-
So strong is their migratory disposition, that it is well
known few things will prevent their progress, as even
at the locks at Teddington and Hampton, the young
eels have been seen to ascend the large posts of the
flood-gates, in order to make their way when the gates
have been shut longer than usual. Those which die
stick to the posts ; others, which get a little higher,
meet with the same fate, until at last a sufficient layer
of them is formed to enable the rest to overcome the
difficulty of the passage. A curious instance of the
means which young eels will have recourse to, in
order to perform their migrations, is annually proved
in the neighbourhood of Bristol. Near that city there
is a large pond, immediately adjoining which is
a stream. On the bank between these two waters
a large tree grows, the branches of which hang,
into the pond. By means of these branches the young
eels ascend into the tree, and from thence let them-
selves drop into the stream below, thus migrating to
far distant waters, where they increase in size, and
become useful and beneficial to man. A friend of
mine, who was a casual witness of this circumstance,
informed me that the tree appeared to be quite alive
with these little animals. The rapid and unsteady
motion of the boughs did not appear to impede their
progress."-:-Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History.