The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-23 00:00:00

•
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

When the Globe talks of candour, it pufs 'us iii
mind of Lady Blarney's dissertation upon virtue.
" Virtue," says her Ladyship, " is worth any money:;
but where is that to be found ?" So it may be said
" the candour of the Globe, like that of the Whig-
Radical faction, is worth any money ; but where is
that to be found ?" Certainly not in the columns
which marshal every day, under the name of Reformers,
a large majority of violent and pledged thick-and-thin
opponents of all measures, good and bad, which have
not the sanction of the Melbourne and Brougham Ad-
ministration of " do-little and do-less memory"—a
majority that only exists in
.the writer's imagination,
or somewhere in the terra incognita of the moon.
The Globe may give us what party Kickname it pleases.
We are content to be tried and judgeci by our acts, as
we trust the King's Ministers will be. We are not
ambitious of being distinguished, like our Contem-
porary, for that versatility of genius which made
it figure as the most servile Tory and anti-Reform
paper under the Duke of Wellington's former
Administration ;—the no less servile Whig and just
inediumist Journal under the Whig Ministry, and the
obsequious oracle of Whig-Radicalism and O'Con-
nellite agitation during the " crisis," which it ex-
pected would restore its late patrons to power, and to
what was to them the most precious parts of patriotism,
the command and distribution of the loaves and fishes,
with all the " baskets of fragments" which their no
less patriotic sycophants were accustomed to gather
u'p. When the Globe was a Tory Paper we advocated
the same principles that we do now, when that Journal
has got so far on the road of Whig-Radical doctrines
as to acknowledge its sympathy with the cause- of the
repeal-agitator, with the begging-box in one hand, and
the skull and cross-bones in the other. Let the
Evening Journal of both Tory and Whig Governments
talk as it will of its devotion to liberty and liberal
principles, we cannot forget that it defencled, and even
eulogised, all the despotic and sanguinary proceedings
of the Doctrinaire Government of France, including
the state of siege, the military tribunals, and their
sentences of death, which the Court of Cessation sub.
sentiently annulled; the massacres of Paris and Lyons,
and all the police cineutes which have disgracefully
distinguished the reign of the King of the Barricades.
We recorded our opinions in opposition to the Whig
Journals on all these topics, as well as on the skameful
apathy with which the liberty-loving Whigs beheld the
struggle and extinction of Poland, and the slavish sub.-
mission to the Russians' Autocrat which they dis-
played in assisting that object by the Russian-Dutch
Loan job. When we were advocating under the
Whig, as we did under the Tory Government, a full
and efficient reform of the Criminal Laws, we found
no such opposition offered any where to that species of
reform as was offered by the Globe. Day after day
we were called upon to expose and refute the miserable
sophistries which that Journal put forth in defence of
those cruel and barbarous punishments which create
sympathy for the criminal and disgust for the law—re-
volting to the reason of enlightened men, and opposed to
that moral power with which judicious legislation
would invest the majesty of justice. Yet, as
soon as it was ascertained that the Whigs
were out of office, the same Journal ex-
claimed, " Will the country trust the working of the
reformed criminal law to the advocates of cruel and
sanguinary punishments ?" But we tell our contem-
porary, though he applies to us the epithet of " Tory,"
because we do not become factious for the Whigs in
their disgrace, whom we never bowed down before
when in power, that we are not yet as well satisfied
with the reform of the criminal law as he appears_to
be, and shall not be satisfied, whoever may regulate
the political destinies of this country, until the penal
code shddl have become, in all respects, worthy of the
Christian civilization of England. To all other
measures of reform and improvement which we have
at any time supported we still adhere, and, in due
season, will prove that political vicissitudes have
worked no change in our principles or opinions.
As we have never advocated measures of destruction,

under the name of improvement—as we have never
preferred speculative innovations and new-fangled de-
mocratic doctrines to the good old tried principles of
our mixed Constitution—we do not intend to begin
now to follow in the path of destructive councils. Ou

object is to repair—to beautify—to restore—not to
pull to pieces and destroy in the rage of rabble excite,-
ment, or the wantonness of " philosophic " experiMent.
The reform and preservation of our national institu-
tions, and the improvement of the moral and social
condition of the gre4t mass of the people, are objects
of far more value in our eyes Alan any thing connected
with the struggles of political rivalry, and the conflicts
of party ambition. The nicknames of party may hive
charms for others. We judge of politicians by their
acts alone ; and by that infallible test, in spite of the
clamour of a selfish faction, who dignify their avarice
of power with the name of patriotism, shall we. judge
of the merits of the existing Administration.--Mora.
ing Herald.

It is stated, and we apprehend with truth, that ac-
tive communications have for some time been_ going
forward between his Majefy's Ministers and those of
the Established religion, wfth a view, at least on the

secular Government, to an extensive and substantial

reform of the Church, in what concerns its temporal
administration. There seems to us as little benefit'as

there would be virtue in denying that the temporal
church is eaten up with abuses, which, if they operated
no further than upon the rights and interests of the ia-
dividuals themselves who compose the body of the

clergy, would demand an immediate remedy ; but re-
acting, as they do, upon the whole of society, and de-
feating in a measure the great ends forwhich a Church
was instituted, they call still more loudly for correction:
The entire temporal Church of England is disfigured
by blemishes and administrative errors. Thom the
bishop to the curate much is out of joint : from the_
bishop, whose position too frequently permits him la
do wrong with impunity, to the curate, who • too fre-
quently suffers it without redress, the hand of thellegis-
lator is required for purposes of restraint or of. protec-
tion. In any process of Church reform, therefore;' it is
that no portion of the cstablislint
should be left by its framers out of their serionscon--
templation. If the appointment, the condition, and 'co- 1)-37
duct of the highest order of clergy, with all thei4atY&ll7.-
dant circumstances, be not adverted to, and all abu.ies- -
relating to them provided against, as well as .those which
concern the unfortunate parochial drudges, the Reform
will be but nominal, or at least but partial and insignifi-
cant, and held in utter disapproval and contempt by
the laity. The Right Reverend Bench, it is understood,.
are .busied with the consideration of a variety, of mea-
sures under the head of Church Reform. We hope

that these venerable persons will begin by a full inves-
tigation, and a frank avowal of whatever facts are cal-
culated to throw the clearest light upon the temporal.
stain of the Right Reverend Bishops themselves, their
emornnieriLs their powers, their patronage, their duties,
?
and that there Nv2l be no shrinking, either from:the de-
tection of grievance, pr the application of a remedy.
There is an enormous inequality in the sees of. Bishops
and in their incomes, which, taken together :with. the
practice of translation, opens a field, while it offers a
bribe, to endless intrigue, and its characteristic weapons ,
servility, duplicity, cunning, and a selfish indifference
to the spiritual duties of the see. An • absolute
equalization of episcopal revenues in all instances would
perhaps be not easily practicable, nor altogether justifi-
able. But there ought to be an equalization in Many-in-
stances, and a greater approximation in all. The Arch-
bishoprics, with the Bishoprics of London and Durham,
might have larger incomes annexed to them than
.any
of the other sees, and all the others be as nearly as
possible equalized in the amount both of their duties -
and their emoluments. The episcopal holding of
livings in cornmendant is one of the corruptest abuses
of the times of Papal oppression : it is one of the
worst species of pluralities, and forces the Bishop who
holds it to neglect either his cure of souls, or the ma-
nagement of his diocese. He cannot, we -suppose,
administer his see by deputy, and he ought not to set
the bad example of instructing his flock by proxy. The
system which is known by the name of Dean and Chap-
ter estates must be revised and rectified. • ..fi7o reform of
the establishment will deserve the name which does not
apply a searching hand to these hitherto much-abusedte.
venues. Nextafter these in order comes the appropriation