The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The extremity which the British Government
has so long shown an anxious desire to avert,
has now arrived, and the measure which it has
evinced such a reluctance to employ, must now
be adopted. The King of Holland has proved
by his late conduct that he is resolved not to
make peace with Belgium on any terms—that he
is determined to embroil Europe, if possible, in
order to gratify his selfish ambition by a Belgic
conquest—and that rather than surrender his ob-
stinate warlike purposes, he is prepared to bid
defiance to all his allies. His caprices have
been too long respected ; and the friends of or-
der cannot farther temporize. A large English
and French fleet is, with the full concurrence
of the Allies, to be despatched to the coast of
Holland, to blockade his ports, and bring him
to his senses. When we speak of the reluctance
of the English Ministry to take this step till it
was proved to be absolutely necessary, and of
their determination to act with vigour and
promptitude since that necessity has been estab-
lished, we must not forget to mention, with the
most cordial satisfaction, the confidence which
their Royal master reposed 'at first in their paci-
fic disposition, and the readiness with which he
has now consented to their indispensable employ-
ment of a national force, with the efficiency of
which he is so well acquainted. " I see clearly,"
his Majesty is understood to have said, when the
resolution of the Cabinet was submitted to him—
" I see clearly that it cannot be helped—it must
be done." In using these words, expressive
at once of his regret at the obstinacy of the
Dutch King, and of his firmness in supporting
the national honour, his Majesty has acquired
an additional claim to our respect and gratitude.
We are glad thus to be enabled to assure
the public, that the absurd resistance which has
been maintained by the King of Holland for the
last eighteen months against every reasonable
arrangement is on the eve of being terminated by
submission, or overcome by force. We have
stated the fact so frequently as almost to make
us ashamed of another repetition, and have
proved it so often as to render further evidence
superfluous, that his Dutch Majesty has shown
no desire to make peace on any conditions—and
that he has been waiting to see what chances
might be offered him for the re-subjugation of
Belgium in the chapter of accidents. All the
undiplomatic world is now convinced of this,
and the London Conference more than all the
world. Hence the latter, though they desire to
take no undue advantage even of an offensive
and dangerous obstinacy, are resolved that the
treaty of November, 1831, with its late modifi-
cations, shall be executed ; and that the peace of
Europe shall no longer be threatened by one of
its weakest states. We need not go further into
the means of compelling an execution of the
treaty ; but as the King of Holland long expect-
ed, and as the Tories in this county always
affected to believe, that the three absolute
Powers of the Conference would protest against
the application of force, we may as well mention,
that not only Prussia and Austria, but also
Russia, arc entirely consenting parties to this
arrangement. In such a state of things, it would
be superfluous, and might appear tiresome, to en-
ter again on the ground which we have so often
traversed and examined before, respecting the
recent claims and pretensions of Holland. We
have seen the nine questions addressed by the
Conference to the Dutch Plenipotentiary in
London on the 25th and 26th of September
last, and we are sure that not one of them could
excite the slightest interest in our readers, ex-
cept that regarding the navigation of the
Scheldt, to which we have so often adverted.
As our Correspondent " Batavus " has foolishly
offered to break a lance with us or with the
champion of the whole commercial world on
this point, we shall make no apology for tran-
scribing the question of the Conference on this
topic, with the Dutch reply regarding it. The
former was—" In the treaty which the Nether-
land Plenipotentiary may be ready to sign with
Belgium, would he admit that the navigation of
the Scheldt would be free for the vessels of all
nations, and that those vessels would not be
subjected to any stoppage, to any visit, or to
any examination of their cargoes, but only (with-
out distinction of flags) to a moderate tonnage-
duty ?" This question, requiring a categorical
answer, ended all the bother, and dispelled all
the mystification of the Dutch project of June
last, which our Correspondent, " Batavus " told
us was identical with the treaty of the 15th of
November, 1831. What did the Dutch Pleni-
potentiary reply ? The following are his
words :—" The Netherland Plenipotentiary
is not authorized to accede to any de-
finitive arrangement in respect to the naviga-
tion of the Scheldt, nor even to admit the przn•
ciple of such an arrangement ; and to the pro.
visional state of things his instructions only war•
rant him to adopt the application of the tariff o
Mentz." We have already explained e hat this
tariff means : we have shown that it had originally
no relation to the Scheldt—that it comprehended
an amount of duty which would destroy the corn
merce of Antwerp—and that in introducing the
word " tariff" into the treaty of the 24 articles,
in November, 1831, the Conference applied it
only to the Rhine and its intermediate waters,
and not to the Scheldt, between the sea and
Antwerp. The question put to the Dutch Go-
vernment, through its Ambassador, and the
answer returned by the latter, will show the de-
termination of the trading Powers of Europe to
resist the closing of the Scheldt, and the dispo-
sition of Holland to renew, without their con-
sent, the treaty of Minister. Such pretensions
cannot be listened to for a moment, and a Bri-
tish expedition to enforce the execution of
reasonable terms of peace with Belgium will thus
be an expedition to protect British commercial
interests. We cannot fail to take some credit to
ourselves for the success which has crowned our
persevering efforts to enlighten the public on the
Belgic question, and for the „steadiness with
which we pointed their views to the present re-
sult. We are now happy to express our full
assurance that any warlike means which may be
employed—not against the Dutch people, but
for the Dutch people against the absurd obsti-
nacy of their Government—will accomplish their
object without occasioning any general explo-
sion. The shell, if it must be discharged, will
sink harmlessly into the fens of Holland, and
cannot have a wider range.— Times.
The opening a dissenting chapel, at Braintree,
on Tuesday last, afforded an occasion for an
assembly of the Dissenters. " Au assembly so
numerous and respectable (says the Essex In•
dependent) of this increasingly influential body
has been rarely witnessed in this county." The
same Paper remarks, that the Dissenters of Brain-
tree and Backing are to the friends of the
Church in the proportion of five to one ; and
that, whilst " both the chapels had been re•
peattdly extended, and are now the largest
n Essex, the attendance at the churches has gra-

dually decreased." At the dinner that followed,
the Rev. James Carter, who was in the chair,
observed—" If the cause of dissent in Bri-
tain was worth nothing else, it was worth
something as a proof of the soundness of
those principles. Our rites were so simple and
pure, our laws were so simple and pure—that if
we mixed anything of man's with them, we
should spoil the whole. We have not the act
of uniformity, but we have the uniformity
without the act." This, by the bye, is a hard
hit against the Church of England, which, in
spite of Articles and Canons, has, by means of
the mixture of the affairs of this world with those
of another, become more divided perhaps than
any other Church. If a qualified teacher do
approve of the congregational system, he has no
motive for saying he does. The same zeal and
abilities which would enable him to obtain a
congregation of Independents will enable him to
obtain a congregation of Baptists or Presbyte-
rians. But the object in the Church of England
is to obtain the living ; and all the traps set by
the Bishop of Peterborough, or any other Ar-
minian Bishop, to ensnare Calvinists, will not
prevent Evangelical Preachers from entering the
fold. The Rev. Algernon Wells, of Coggis-
hall, observed—
" When he looked around him, and contemplated the
various changes which were everywhere taking place, both
on the right hand and en the left—when he saw the gene-
ral advance of society, and that events were indeed casting
their shadows before them, he was convinced that nothing
could pre-erve the world from disorder and confusion but
an efficient Gospel Ministry, and he believed that Protes-
tant Dissenters were destined to work no mean part in
this great undertaking. He had seen the Cathedral of
Backing alter its appearance, and now a great change had
been effected in the interest at Braintree; but though the
buildings changed, he was njoiced to know that the same
doctrines were inculcated and the same principles advo-
cated. All the Dissenters, about thirty years of age, both
in Braintree and Bock*, were contained in Mr. Craie's
Chapel, small as it then was ; but now they had two fine
buildings, and he hoped the day was not f.r distant when
these would be too strait for the people, and it would be
necessary to build another half way between them.—
(Cheers.) He ccnsidered they were now r: aping the re-
ward of their Sunday Schools and other Religious Institu-
tions. It was not their duty to try and make people Dis-
senters, but first to endeavour to make them Christians,
and they would be sure to become Dissenters afterwards."
Another hard hit at Mother Church ! The
Dissenters, it is well known, have always pro-
moted education, and the Church had the glory
of opposing education. All those who first set
on foot Sunday Schools were bitterly persecuted
by the Clergy of the Church of England. They
saw that the Dissenters were never without some
education, and they had a presentiment, that
were the people to be generally educated, they
would, to use Mr. Watt's language, " be sure
to become Dissenters." As the twelfth hour
ended they became converts to the necessity of
education. Of late years they have actually
been shamed out of their open opposition to it.
The Lord Chancellor stated, that when he first
applied to the Clergy, they took no notice of
his application ; but that latterly they had in
great numbers answered his letters soliciting
information with regard to schools. But the
Dissenters have the great merit of setting on
foot instruction among the people. The erec-
tion of a Dissenting Chapel is always imme-
diately followed by the erection of a school.
Establishments may be useful to those who wish
to profit by the abuses in them ; but it is proved by
the case of the Dissenters, that religion and edu-
cation always succeed better without establish-
ments than with them. The Dissenters, how.
ever, bear no hostility to the members of the
Church of England as a sect. They only com-
plain of the hardship of being obliged to pay their
own spiritual instructors and also to support a
Church from which they derive no benefit. The
members of the church generally admit the jus-
tice of the objections of the Dissenters. They
say there can be no reason why the Dissenters,
who support their own clergy and keep their
own chapels in repair, should pay our clergy
and contribute to the erection and repair of our
churches. We are attached to the church ffom
principle ; but we do not wish to persecute those
who are opposed to it from principle, by making
them pay for that which they condemn.
The Standard tells us " The Churchmen are the ma-
jority, whatever the infidel and dissenting writers and
speakers (we are sorry to link them, but they have yoked
themselves) may say to the contrary—they are quiet, be-
cause they have hitherto been unmolested ; but let an at-
tack be made upon that establishment, which has always
been the chief, and is now nearly the only object of their
regard, and there is evidence in history of the manner in
which they will act. Neither Marlborough's glories, nor
the known ill designs of the Jacobite expectants of office,
could save a Whig Ministry in the seventeenth century,
after it had lifted its cloven foot against the Church ; and
what hope would such a Ministry have now, should the
Dissenters force it into a similar enterprise ? The candidate
successors of the present men are pure from the suspicions
that justly attached to Harley and St. John ; and a
greater than Marlborough, with triumphs far more splen-
did, is arrayed, not with the Ministers, but upon the side
of their opponents. No, no ; the Dissenters are not such
fools as to hurry on an experiment which will only bring
sttengtb to the Church, disgrace to themselves, and ruin
to their patron Administration."
The Dissenters are not disposed to attack
the establishment ; they wish merely to secure
themselves for oppression from the pretended
support of an establishment. If the churchmen
are the majority, there is the less necessity for
that majority opposing the minority by the de-
mand of a compulsory aid. But waiving the
Consideration that the proportions of church-
men to Dissenters are somewhat different from
what they were in the time of Marlborough,
when an enumeration made the churchmen
22 to 1 compared with the Dissenters, it is to
be borne in mind that the members of the
Church are generally favourable to the claims
of the Dissenters. Hostility to tithes and
church-rates is as general in the Church as
out of it. In fact', the most of those who
approve of the doctrines of the Church
of England are scandalized at the abuses
which impair its utility. The Aristocracy,
indeed, may be disposed to fight for the ex-
istence of fat Bishopricks, and Deaneries, and
Prebendal Stalls, and rich Rectories of 6,0001
a year, subject only to the deduction of 601. to
the poor Curate who does the duty; but the
people of England are not such fools as to em-
bark in any such cause. The people of Eng-
land know, that if the Church of England were
what it ought to be, the Clergy would not be in
the ranks of their enemies. They do not con-
found the Church with its abuses. They know,
however, that the present Clergy are attached
only to the abuses of the Church. All those
who love the Church for itself, must be as much
disposed as the Dissenters can be to free it from
all that deprives it of the attachment of the peo-
ple. The evils from which the Dissenters suffer
are not beneficial but injurious to the Church
itself. We observe that a clergyman has been
made a Deputy Lieutenant for Cumberland. A
Deputy Lieutenant has an officer's uniform,
and may be called on to take the field. This is
a new era, indeed—or, rather, we have a re-
newal of the era of the Baron Bishops, who were
more distinguished for shedding blood than for
preaching. But this is the oligarchical notion

of what becomes a Minister of religion !

Morning Chronicle.

We believe we may say that the King of
Holland will soon be brought to his sober
senses. The state of Belgium, and the com-
plaints of our own merchants, will no longer
allow the French and English Governments to
suffer the Sovereign of Holland to insult them
with impunity. It is of great importance that
the navigation of the Scheldt should no longer
be at the mercy of Dutch monopoly, and that
the people of Belgium should be allowed to re-
duce their establishments within the compass of
their means. There will be no war. The other

Powers may not assist France and England in co-
ercing the stupid Dutchman; but they are so far
pledged to the measures which France and England
carry into execution, that they cannot without
exhibiting to Europe an utter disregard of all
principle, and even decency, oppose themselves
to these measures. We hold, then, that the best
way to prevent war is to lose no tune in settling
Belgium in good earnest. Should this be ne-
glected, the present discontent of the Belgians
might lead to scenes which could hardly fail to
embroil Europe. One of the great reasons for
our Ministers at all interfering in the case of
Belgium was the strong desire of our commer-
cial men that the Scheldt, so important as an
opening to the heart of the Continent, should be
opened to our enterprise. The Dutch retain all
the narrow spirit of monopoly for which they
have been so long distinguished. They would
willingly sacrifice Antwerp to Rotterdam ; but
they will be defeated in this.—Morii.Chronicle.
The Gazette of last night contains the order
proroguing Parliament to Tuesday, the 11th of
December. From this it is evident that there
will be no short session, as was anticipated by

some—either for the purpose of making correc-
tions in the Reform Bill, or of giving effect to
any movement against the impracticable Sovereign
of Holland. On the contrary, it is probable
that, in a week or two, the present Parliament
will be dissolved, so that the reformers must

" be up and doing," if they intend to avail them
selves of the measure which it cost them so much
exertion to obtain. The period to which the
prorogation extends, coupled with the omission
of that significant phrase, which, when a real
bona fide meeting of Parliament is intended,
always concludes the invitation to meet by telling
them, distinctly, it is to be " for the despatch
of business"—these circumstances, taken to-
gether, intimate plainly enough that the present
Parliament is destined never to meet again. If
the next Parliament be not in fact, as it will be
in name, a reformed Parliament, the fault must
be with the people, who, having the power in
their own hands, are bound in consistency, as
well as in justice to their own interests, to show
that they prosecuted and achieved Reform for a
purpose and not as a whim ; and that, having
achieved it, they will employ it for the overthrow
of corruption. We have often deprecated that
provision of the Act which renders the right of
voting contingent upon the payment of taxes. It
was peculiarly ungracious, at a time when the
people were suffering great privations, to make the
exercise of their political rights depend on the
performance of any pecuniary conditions ; it was
adding disfranchisement to the other conse-
quences of misfortune. Many persons are of
opinion that the disfranchisement thus effected
has proceeded to a great . extent, and that this
error of Ministers will operate more powerfully
than is supposed against that total change of
system on the immediate accomplishment of
which so much depends at the present crisis. It
is to be hoped that such apprehensions will turn
out to be exaggerated ; but it is only by the
prompt and active exertion of those who have
votes that the reformers can hope to make up
for those who have none. The Tories are in
the field, and they are not only skilful agents
of mischief, but interested parties, who derive a
profit from doing mischief. Every man, woman,
or child, who holds an unmerited pension or a
sinecure office, has an interest which can be
computed in pounds, shillings, and pence—
that interest engaging them to do all possible
mischief, and throw all possible impediments in
the way of the working of the Reform Act.
They, we may be assured of it, will not slum-
ber on their posts. Let us imitate their activity,
that we may counteract their designs, and in
the short interval between this and the probable
meeting of the new Parliament use every exer-
tion to find out able and honest men, who will
devote themselves in earnest to " the despatch of
business," the business of securing to the peo-
ple the advantages of their own triumph. It
will be seen from our report of the meeting al
Staines, that Mr. Hume, whose opportunities
of intelligence are as great as those of any man
not immediately connected with the Cabinet,
informed his constituents that he understood the
present Parliament was not to meet again.—
Morning Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

G UILDHALL.

Thomas .211oxey, a shoemaker, was brought be-
fore Mr. Alderman WILSON yesterday, charged with
assaulting his wife.
The poor woman stated that this was the fourth
time she had been compelled to have him taken into
custody. He was continually abusing her, and the
assault of which she complained was, that as she
was stooping to tie her boot, the prisoner came
upon her unawares, and gave her a brutal kick,
which forced her half across the room, and from the
effects of which she was unable to walk for an hour
and a half. He also tore all her stock of clothing

into little strips.
The prisoner said he had detected his wife in the
fact of adultery with a soldier in his own room, and
it was impossible not to feel exasperated at it.
Brand, the marshalman, said he had told this story

before, and from the inquiries he had made upon the
subject in the neighbourhood, lie was satisfied it was
a delusion upon the prisoner's mind.
The MAGISTRATES fined the prisoner 51., in de-
fault of immediate payment of which he was com-
mitted to Brideweil for two months.
BOW-STREET.

William Hudson Davis, who stood charged with
stealing two sovereigns from the person of Mr.
Phillips, a law-stationer, at Rowbottom's " Finish,"
some nights ago, came up for final examination, he
having been allowed to enter into his own recog-
nizances to meet the charge. No additional evi-
dence, however, was produced, and
Sir F. ROE ordered his discharge, observing that
the case was not aufficiently made out to justify him
in sending it to trial.