The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Shakspeare asks whether the Devil can speak truth.
'We have not a doubt upon the point—we have not a
doubt that he cannot help it, and one of his worst pains
it must be that the truth will escape from him in spite
of himself. Nothing in the world is so subtle as truth ;
it cannot be confined ; it has a transpiration which
cannot be suppressed. All the skill in falsehood, re-
sulting from the most constant practice, fails to ex-
clude truth. It might be worth the while of the to-
lies to found a college for the education of youth in the
strict habit of falsehood ; but the experiment would not
completely succeed. We can hardly conceive any cul-
tivation of lying by which prizes for undeviating false-
hood, during so short a space as a year, could be won.
We began intending only to illustrate the -subtlety of
truth, and we have digresssd into the difficulty of un-
interrupted falsehood. Let us return, then, to the
subtlety of truth, of which we have now before us a
princely example in a letter from his Royal Highness
the Duke of Cutnberland to the Grand Orange Lodge
of Longford :

" BERLIN, Oct. 12, 1835.

" GENTLEMEN Having been absent from home, and
attending the reviews at Kalisch and Tceplitz,.it was only
on my return here that I received the address voted to
me by the Grand Lodge of Longford, on the 17th of
September.
" I lose, therefore, no time in returning you my sincere
thanks, and in again assuring you now in writing, of that
-which I have publicly stated on more occasions than one,
that, in accepting the high office of Grand Master of the
Orangemen of the United Kingdom, I am fully determined
to act up to the principles of that loyal body—principles in
which, from my earliest youth, my venerable and ever-to-
be-lamented father, George the Third, educated me, in
common with all his children, and in which I have studiously
educated my son.
" That I am become the object of abuse and malevolence
of the enemies of good order and loyalty I am not sur-
prised at, and am prepared to bear with ; for, as I have said,
I never will allow myself to retract one iota of our prin-
ciples, or give way to machinations, which I know have no
other object but to subvert the State, and overthrow the
remains of that beautiful Constitution which we are enjoy-
ing, and which was our pride, and the admiration of all
Europe,
"/ must beg to call the serious attention of all my brother
Orangemen to the necessity of avoiding all transgression of
the law, for to do otherwise would be to put anus in our
enemies' hands. Remember were to support and maintain
the laws of the country, and not to infringe them.
‘‘ You may rely upon it that I shall be again at my post
in the House of Lords whenever Parliament meets, in spite
of all the threats and menaces held out by the adverse
party to intimidate me. The Orangemen may rest assured
that I shall be true to them, and to those principles which
are to support and defend the Church, Monarchy, and
country.

ERNEST, Grand Master."
Now it cannot be supposed that his Royal High-
ness intended to say any, thing uncivil or reproachful
to his Orange brethren ; but such was the subtlety of
the truth, that he could not help it. " Remember,"
observes tile Grand Master, " we are to support the
laws of the country,- not to infringe them." As
Terence's Simo says—" Istcec commemoratio quasi ex-
probatio est." It is obviously unnecessary to remind
good and peaceable subjects that they should support
the laws, and not infringe them. But the truth
would break out, and the Duke could not forget
the true character of the body he was addressing, nor
suppress.the expression of his consciousness or their
true character. The only reason for not infringin
the law, had been given in the preceding sentence
" I must beg," says his Royal Highness,

" to c

the serious attention of all my brother Orangemen to
the necessity of avoiding all transgressions of the law."
Mark that ! the necessity of avoiding all transgres-
sions of the law—hard necessity ! Then comes the
" For to do other7vise, would be to put arms
in our• enemies' hands." The single objection which

reason—'

this excellent Prince states to the transgression of the
law, is the advantage it will give to enemies. Obedi-
ence to the law was never more pithily preached ad
hoinines. To have held forth on the social, the mo-
ral, and the religious duty of respecting the law,
would have been a waste of words in the address
of a Grand Master to an Orange Lodge ; but the
reason (" for to do otherwise would Le to put
arms in our enemies' hands") was quite level to
the intelligence, and well addresfied to the passions of
the brethren. In any state of things, such as a return
of the good old Tory rule, in which transgressions of
the law would not put arms in the hands of enemies of
Oran::;emen, the Grand Master would not have a ree-
eon to show. for obedience to the laws on the part of
his brethren. The parallel to the moral lesson would
li this---" Avoid cutting throats and stealing purses,
for to do otherwise would be to put yourselves into the
liensonan's hands. Such a consideration does iiot seem
to be addressed to a vevy.- respectable morality. It im-
plies O'ar absence of any'restraining principle except
the fear of punishment. We ineee no doubt, how-
• ever, that the lesson of the Royal Duke is admirably
auapted to the minde and morals of those to whom it
is addressed. He has, with excellent brevity, stated
the only reason for obeying the law which they
would feel the force of. JWe here see the cha-
racter of the brethren as distinctly admitted as if
volumes had been written to exhibit them as insensible
of the moral and religious obligations to avoid offence,
and only to be restrained by'the apprehension of giving
an advantage to the enemies they hate. They are
thus only kept from violating the peace .by their vin-
dictive sentiments—it is not by any surupie to do
-wrong, but by the consideration that the wrong would
give a triumph to their foes. Verily there is a greater
body of truth contained in these five lines by his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cumberland, than in all that
has yet been written of the truculent spirit and lawless
practices of Orangemen. If we had no other evidence
of the character of the Association, it would be sup-
plied by the inferences from that brief lesson. The
Grand Master, in being at the head of such a body, is
honoured indeed. Did he learn from his venerable
father, in his early youth, no higher principle of loyalty
than he inculcates, i. e. the' observance of the law,
simply and solely because the transgression would put
arms in the hands of enemies ?—Monziazg Chronicle.
It is high time, and indeed long has been, that some
steps were taken by competent authority to rescue the
INliddlesex County Court at Clerkenwell from the state '
of ridicule and disgrace into which it has fallen. %Vc
need not say of how much consequence it is to the
administration of justice that its Courts and functiona-
ries should be held in respect. There are very obvious
reasons, too, why this may be said to apply with more
force to the inferior than to the higher Courts. The
latter have an innate solemnity and dignity attached to
them which they cannot well forfeit ; while the latter,
as has been proved in the instance we arc alluding to,
will but too readily sink into contempt if not cautiously
upheld by the talent, the good sense, and feeling of de-
corum which ought to preside over and mark its pro-
,Ga a.es. ceedings.` Since the retirement of Mr. Const from
t7r
the Chair of the Middlesex Sessions, its proceedings
dcs .\,,,P seem to have been almost invariably carried on either
•43`. -ilnder a cloud or in a storm. Mistake upon mistake
t. 0
se, N, soTtl. to have characterised its proceedings. Persons
I.)y education and habit are seen successively
\;"*
ro
•C-;4sa• ~a./(4,apres3d.2na• over the Court of the metropolitan county ;
\.t.C', N 5,4, Nate tie Chair, as far as a regular occupant is
Nte"
ocon4tikva, it seems, is for a time placed, as it
a7,ve :?• .
w IN, abeyance, under circumstances to which
.10,4).A4:7>' aaeno wish further to allude. Indeed in the
"'.mssl:)urg,uii ofa great public object, nothing is further
froin ottl''.4ttention than to wound the feelings of
individuals
; for which reason it is, and because
the facts are notorious, that we abstaim from ex-
hibiting proofs of the strong assertions we have made,
which are but too abundant. We do not exactly
know of what materials the Middlesex Commission
may be composed, but have always understood that
the Magistracy of a county is supposed to consist of
the 'elite of its Nobility and Gentry, of persons qua-
- • lified alike by property and by talents to administer the
• laws intrusted to their care, as well as to regulate with
. judgment and integrity the fiscal concerns of their res-
pective districts. If the Middlesex Commission be,
as we hope it is, composed of such persons, it natu-
rally must excite surprise that they can tacitly look
on at the state of things to which we are adverting.
They of course cannot be ignorant of that which all
the rest of the world sees and knows. If they know
it, and are indifferent about it, it is time, as we have
said, that the remedy were applied by other and more
competent hands. There are theatres enough in the

P.,s.,,,e'rNos •
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