The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The account of Sir John Hobhouse's interview with the
deputation from Marylebone and Pancras, relative to the
throwing open of some parts of the Regent's Park to the
public, must be anything but satisfactory to the many, thou-
sands to whom this right, or indulgence, call it which we
will, is so essentially requisite. After parrying and quib-
bling in a way which would have greatly distinguished the
most subtle special pleader, the new Commissioner of
Woods and Forests has recourse to an expedient of which
we could hardly suspected even a Whig, and, with infinite
nonchalance, expresses a doubt whether the deputations
represent the wish of the majority of their constituents
upon the subject. But even here, too, we have a
quibble, or loophole, quite unworthy of the occasion ;
and it is endeavoured to be inferred that, because a ma-
jority of the inhabitants of the Park itself may not be
in favour of the proposed concession ; that, therefore, it
should not be listened to. If this were to be the crite-
rion, and that a fair one, there would be, we fear, very
little hope of the object being effected ; for though, we
dare say, the inhabitants of the Park have as much.pa-
triotism and public spirit as most people, yet, considering
that the convenience in question is one which they already
enjoy, and in the enjoyment of which they are liable per-
haps to be rather prejudiced than otherwise by the indis-
criminate admission of the public, it is little short of a
mockery and absurdity to talk of their assent as being
either probable or essential. The question, after all, is one
of right, and not of favour ; and as such we trust will
always be treated ; and we hope the people, and the Press
on their behalf, will never cease to knock, and knock loudly,
at the gates till they are opened. Why should the Govern-
ment thus wantonly make itself a party in this unpopular
and unjust reluctance to yield a matter of right ? Sooner
or later it must, and will be yielded. Why not, then, make
a virtue of necessity, and yield while there remains a grace
in yielding ? Is it to be borne that wild beasts and toxo-
pholites, the sinecurists of St. Catherine's, and the Jews of
Change-alley, are to have the lungs of the metropolis
parcelled out to them, while the public, whose property
it is, are not allowed to enjoy air and exercise, other-
wise than in the self-same tracks as that of a horse
in a mill ? How different a course might the new
Commissioner of Woods and Forests have pursued upon
this occasion—a course in which, without expressly com-
mitting himself to any specific concessions, he might have
laid the basis of much popularity towards the Government,
and especially that department over which he presides. Sir
John Hobhouse, after hearing the deputations without in-
terrupting them, might with great propriety have said—
" Gentlemen, I am, as you are all aware, so lately appointed
to my present office, that I have not yet had the smallest
opportunity of examining into the matter to which your
communication refers, or into many others which naturally
call for my attention. At present, therefore, I can only
beg, that you will assure the parties, on whose behalf you
appear, that no time shall be lost in giving the subject of
their wishes my fullest attention, and that there exists every
inclination on the part of my colleagues and myself to
gratify the expectations of the public." Such a course as
this would have evinced better taste than the gratuitous
censure of Mr. Arbuthnot, whose posthumous declaration
in favour of the object now sought for, appears to have been
so embarrassing and annoying to his successors in office.—
Morning Herald.
The Irish Tithe Bill made considerable progress during
the last week, but we are not ashamed to confess our strong
dissatisfaction not only with the principles on which that
measure has been constructed, but on the change which
has been wrought upon it by Mr. O'Connell's motion.
There can be nothing, in our opinion, more unquestionable
than the right of the Legislature (not merely the legal, but
the just and moral right) to determine the uses and appli-
cation of whatever bears the name of Corporate property,
which is always in the nature of trust property, according
to its own sense of what the national interest requires. On
this ground it is that we joined in the disapproval of Mr.
Stanley's secession frem Lord Grey's Ministry, and main-
tained against that Right Hon. Gentleman and his Col-
leagues the power of appropriating to any object of recog-
nized public utility, whatsoever surplus revenue might ac-
crue from the commutation of tithe, after satisfying the fair
and reasonable demands of the Protestant Church Esta-
blishment ; otherwise, in fact, it might by possibility so
happen that one-half—nay, one-tenth—of the existing
Clergy of Ireland, being, after another century,
found to suffice for a much-diminished Protestant
population, would enjoy the whole wealth of the
Church ! But, clear and essential, in every view of
sound policy, as we continue to hold the maintenance of
such a legislative power, it strikes us as no less obvious
that towards its useful and effective exercise, the property,
so susceptible of altered application, ought, in amount and
substance, no matter under what change of form, to be
preserved entire and unimpaired. In correspondence with
the best schemes for a commutation of tithe which came
under our notice within these four or five years, the full
value, estimated on an average of a certain number of
years, was to be levied in the shape and by the name of
land-tax, redeemable according to given regulations, and
appropriated, so far as might be necessary, but no further,
to the service of the Protestant Church, the surplus, if
any, being left open to the supreme direction of Parliament.
But if there has been one truth more forcibly stated, and
more freely and universally recognized, than another, until
within these late unfortunate proceedings, it was, that in no
case, and under no circumstances, it was, that in no case, and
under no circumstances, should the property of the Church
be transferred to any other body not a claimant for public re-
muneration, support, or bounty, on the score of services ren-
dered to the State,or as necessities or privations inflicted by
it. Least of all was any advocate of tithe adjustment so
bold as to recommend that little short of a moiety of the
church revenue should in the first stage of the proposed
measure, nay, as a preliminary to it, be at one daring stroke
swept away from the clergyman, and into the landlord's
pocket P We are sensible that this purpose has been dis-
guised under many plausible names, and dressed up with
various fine pretences, but it is nevertheless a downright and
most impolitic spoliation of the weak, for the profit of the
powerful. It has been described as affording " relief to the
occupying tenant." The yccupying tenant is undoubtedly
the party by whom tithe has hitherto been paid. But what
follows, if he happen to be a tenant at will or year by year ?
His landlord comes to him and says, " Now that you are
no longer to be charged with tithe, you can afford to pay me
so much more rent, and accordingly next year I must lay on
Bs. or 10s. (as the case may be) additional per acre." So
with every longer lease near expiring, or whenever the day
of its expiration arrives, the same language will be held before
the renewal,and a larger sum will be imposed in rent than ever
was charged in tithe. Then again, with regard to the land-
lord himself ; see how this transfer must necessarily work,
should there be a large proportion of his estate leased out
for long terms, as 21 or 31 years (frequent in Ireland),
against him. Where his tenant formerly paid 25/. of tithe,
he the landlord, will henceforth be saddled with 15/.
Where the whole tenantry of an estate paid 200/. before,
the landlord will now have to come down with 1206, and
the church loses no less than 80/. Of course we are told
that the Consolidated Fund is to make up one-half this
deficit. But for how many Sessions after the proceedings
of last week will such a compensation be vouchsafed to the
Clergy, or to the charitable or other establishments by
which they may be nominally represented ? The operation
of this tithe measure, therefore, is-Ist, a relief to the te-
nant for term of years at the expense of the landlord, who
let his ground with an understanding that the tenant was
to pay the tithe. 2d, it will after the termination of existing
leases, reimpose the tithe in an aggravated form on the te-
nantry, the landlords requiring to be indemnified for their
preceding loss. 3d, it will be a spoliation of the church esta-
blishment both immediate and permanent, and an extinction
of every hope of surplus income, applicable to the general
wants and objects of the State. Finally, it has created a
precedent for the wholesale breaking up of that thing called
" property," which, it is manifest from the menaces put
forth by Mr. Sheil, there will be no reluctance even a few
months hence to follow. Once more, we must guard our-
selves against the imputation of a desire to limit the whole
Irish Church revenue at its present level to the uses of the
parochial clergy of Ireland, however much on inquiry it
might appear disproportioned to their wants or services ;
but we dread ,the example of such an experimental change
as this. These are the difficulties which show themselves.-
Ireland
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seemed almost desperate before the tithe measure was
brought in, and that if the question should really be whe-
ther the clergy are to lose a severe per tentage on their in-
come, or, as is feared by their Ministerial friends, the whole
of it, which may be possible from the existing state of
Ire-
land, we can do nothing but supplicate the Lords to con-
sult their Lordships' means at the expense of their wishes,
and to save a remnant of the Irish Church by sacrificing
those of its appendages, which endanger the whole body of
the institution.-7Yrnes.

RECENT DISCOVERIES, ILLUSTRATING THE
NEw TESTAMENT.—The Rev. Mr. Arundel' has performed a
vast service to modern knowledge, as connected by sacred
geography, by the publication of his' Travels and Discoveries
in Asia Minor," particularly with reference to those places
ennobled and consecrated by the earlier history of Christianity.
In exploring Anatolia more fully than any other traveller, the
Rev. Author has been enabled to confirm some of the dis..
puted statements of Herodotus, and, what is of infinitely more
importance, to illustrate many passages of the New Testa-
ment. Whoever reads the Acts of the Apostles, would dcb
wisely to peruse that inspired book, with the above-named
volumes by his side.