The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-12 00:00:00

sense, is there the slightest truth in the represen•
tation of Lord ROBERT CECIL, that Churchmen
wished for facts, and Dissenters did not. The
reverse is the truth; Dissenters are satisfied
with the fact of persons being on a given
day in a given place. Lord ROBERT CECIL,
and Churchmen who act with him, want the fiction
of five millions of persons reckoned as Churchmen
who attend no place of worship at all!
We are not sorry that the Government has
thrown up a religious census in any form. They
will not—being now in dudgeon—propose even
to repeat that of 1851. This is of little con-
sequence. We fear that even one similar in plan
to that would be but very unreliable compared
with it. There would be more effort made by all
the rival parties ;—a regular whipping up. In
1851 there had been no excitement. Dissenters did
not suppose, any more than Churchmen, that they
were doing, comparatively, so much. Dissenters
were prepared to acquiesce in a considerable in-
feriority, and Churchmen thought they need not
exert themselves to show a great superiority.
Hence things on the whole took very much their
usual course. After the result became known—a
result equally surprising to both sides, surprising
we confess to us—one party is naturally anxious
to preserve the position it has gained, the
other to recover the one it has lost. We
do not believe the latter will ever be done
except by fair means. Let the Church out-work
the Dissenters, and they will then stand first in the
eyes of public men ; till then, those of ns who have
no wish but to be fair to all, must give to Dissenters
the credit due to them. They have had nothing
from the State—they ask nothing from the State.
They refuse, therefore, to be catechised by the State,
as the different tolerated sects are in States which
pay their clergy of all sects. Still more do they
reasonably object, after a census ten years ago
which proved what all sects were doing towards
national religious instruction, to have it changed
to a census which shall include those amongst ,
whom no sect was doing anything amongst the
dominant party. However, the whole thing is
now dropped, and though peace in our time—espe-
cially while church-rates last, and while the leaders
of the Church are encroaching, and the leaders of
Dissent sensitive—is too much to expect, we shall
at least furnish neither party with a fresh bone of
contention. The only party now damaged is the
Government, which persisted in harassing its own
supporters.

We can all remember when we were boys setting
traps for sparrows. Four old bricks would often
suffice for the purpose, and these with a bit or two
of stick were all made to look as much as possible
like bricks and sticks that had no covert object.
And as to baits—anything that sparrows were
fond of—the crumbs shaken out from the table-
cloth after dinner, in daily expectancy of which
sparrows peered over the edges of eaves and water-
troughs, would do as well as anything. And then
all being ready, we retired to watch our trap, and
to see how our bait took. After a little time the
pert and saucy creatures would descend to examine;
would look at it from a wall perhaps, hop down,
hop up again, then down again, and so on—at
length some younger or middle-aged sparrow
would give it as his opinion that the pleasant•look-
ing food was worth trying. To be sure all was
not quite as it used to be—the bricks, he did not
know how they came there exactly—but they were
old ones, though not quite in the old disorier,
and the bits of stick—they, too, looked quite
common withered sticks, and though not exactly as
if they grew on trees, yet they seemed quite inno-
cent—and then the crumbs, why, they were ex-
cellent, he had himself first taught them not to fear
the flapping table cloth, but to regard it as the sign
of a first-rate entertainment—he would go in and
have some. But some crafty old cock sparrow would
not venture so far. He would sit on the edge of the
brick ; peep down into the specious but mysterious
narrow space ; the crumbs might be very well, but
what if, after all, the brick should fall and shut
him up with the crumbs! So he prudently lets his
more hopeful companion hop down first, and turn-
ing his knowing little head this way and that, says

don't mean to be caught, not even with crumbs,

It was these doings and sights of boyhood, of
which we were reminded the other night in the
House of Commons. Mr. WYLD set his trap there.
Though Reform is not to be tolerated, putting
down " Corrupt Practices," at least putting down
the expense of them, is thought desirable, and Sir
G. C. LEWIS had his bill, founded on a formidable
Blue Book Report, on the subject—a bill which he
had to give up for a continuance of the half-con-
demned old one last night. Now, Sir GEORGE is
the reputed author of the _Edinburgh Review scheme
of voting papers, and he. listened to and questioned
with evident favour Mr. CHADWICK, in the com-
mittee, when the latter was giving his evidence in
favour of taking the votes by voting papers. So
Mr. WYLD proposed to " amend the system of
taking votes at elections "—and the bait was that
it should be done by "voting papers." These voting
papers might, of course, be given in, and might
even be filled up either secretly or openly ; to be
sure the voter after receiving a voting paper num-
bered to correspond with his number on the regis-
ter was to retire into another room to strike out
the names from the list which appeared to him
least worthy—but they were only voting papers.
It looked no doubt a little Australian, but why
should they not take hints from their own colonies ?
At any rate there were the voting papers—to the
desirableness of which Mr. CHADWICK and the ex-
Edinburgh Reviewer could testify.
Sir GEORGE hardly felt quite sure. He went
out of the house—stepped in again—might it be
but pure harmless, rather excellent, voting papers ?
Mr. WYLD vas " a brick ;" no doubt, a ballot brick
too ; mere voting papers were hardly in their
natural place in his hands ; still voting papers
were excellent. He had tried them in argument;
and his friend Mr. CHADWICK, in the election of
guardians—he would vote for hopping down under
the brick. But the mere wary old lord was not
so sure. He would only look from the outside ;
to him the speech of Mr. WYLD looked " rather
misty." He sniffed the ballot, though he did not
clearly see it. He would not utter a word of hope
—not he ; he would only protest, lest " under the
misty covering in which the honourable gentleman
enveloped his proposal a nucleus of the ballot was
contained within it." Mr. WYLD has, however,
had as good a catch as he ever hoped for; probably
a far better one. He little expected, probably, to
get the two chief Cabinet Ministers consenting to
a bill being brought in for taking votes after the
fashion of the Australian colonies ; which is cer-
tainly as much of a ballot :system as we can need !
Once indeed he had almost had his trap sprung
with nothing inside, by a " count out," much to
the discredit of professedly " advanced Liberals."

As skill and luck, however, would have it, the

younger Minister swallowed the bait, and even the

older one did not pertinaciously object, but only
chirped a little nervously—ballot ! ballot !

The necessity is at length recognised for a
vigorous interference in Syria, on the part of the
Powers of Europe, with a view to the preven-
tion of further atrocities by the Armes, and for