The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
There is no honest man who denies the ne-
cessity of a thorough Church reform, and no
man who can see an inch before him doubts
that such reform must be speedy ; but if there
be one portion of the empire where a reform at
once prompt and vast is indispensable, Ireland
unquestionably is that spot. Lord Grey himself
appears to have been of that opinion when he
stipulated with his brother-in-law, on appointing
him to the great See of Derry, that he (Dr.
Ponsonby) should be fully prepared to submit to
whatever modification or reduction of its enor-
mous revenues might hereafter be decided on by
Parliament. It seems to be agreed amongst
considerate and reasonable persons, that one
leading object of Irish Church reform must be
an abolition of the surplus archbishoprics and
bishoprics. Had the spiritual wants of the Irish
people been consulted, and the Church esta-
blishment been limited in bulk, to purposes
purely religious, it is ridiculous to suppose that
an Episcopal bench, almost equal in numbers to
that of England Wales, would ever have
been created.. This country contains better than
13,000,000 of Protestants of-all denominations,
with 26 members upon the bench of Bishops.
The Irish episcopacy presents a corps of two
and twenty mitres, while the Protestant popula-
tion does certainly not exceed 1,800,000 souls.
Thus the English sees average about 500,000
Protestants of all descriptions, and we suspect
near 350,000 members of the Church itself,
while the average of each Irish see contains less
than 82,000 Protestants, including Dissenters,
and of members of the Established Church
perhaps not two-thirds of that number. The pro-
portion of Irish Bishops to English, therefore, if
regulated by that of the Protestant laity, ought
to be somewhere about one to seven or eight,
and (under such a rule) would not exceed four
mitred heads at the outside. With such a con-
sideration, therefore, before the eyes of Govern-
ment as the inevitable re-adjustment of the tem-
poral Church, more especially of Ireland, upon
some decent regard to the quantum of spiritual
ministry to be required, we would fain know
whether it is too much to ask that Lord Grey
and his colleagues should pause a little, and
leave Parliament to determine how many
Irish bishoprics shall be retained, and how
many suppressed, before they venture to
fill up, on their own authority, the vacuum oc-
casioned by the intermediate demise of any given
prelate. Vacant bishoprics ought to be looked
upon by Ministers as a fund of easy economy,
and as ready materials of reform in the Church.
If tithe be public property, to be commuted at
the will of Parliament, much more is the ap-
. pointment to a vacant bishopric, of the sus-
pension of such appointment, a recognised de-
scription of public property, both being placed
formally, as well as virtually, within the Royal
prerogative. The bishopric of Waterford has just
fallen in ; can it be true that in the teeth of the
public sentiment upon the subject, and of the
expectation, sanctioned by the Government it-
self, of a great and general reform in the
Church of Ireland being contemplated, a suc-
cessor to the deceased Bishop has been already
named, without the least reference to the possi-
bility that the see of Waterford may be one of
those of which the Legislature may please to
order the suppression ? If such a fact be as
stated, we are heartily sorry for it. We are
sure that it will be used as an engine—and we
cannot affirm that it will be improperly so em-
ployed—an engine for assaulting at once the
Reform Government and the Church of Eng-
land. The first duty of a General is to know
his own ground, and the strength of the enemy
opposed to him. It is too plain that, if the al-
legation of the public prints be true, his Md-
jesty's Ministers are grossly uninformed upon
both these essential particulars.—Times.
The French army was to arrive before Ant-
werp on Tuesday last (the 20th inst.), but the
summons was not to be sent to the Governor
of the citadel to surrender before this day (the
22d). Whether the Dutch garrison will yield
at first-to the French summons, and deliver up
the fortress to its lawful owner, the King of
Belgium, without striking a blow, or whether
General Chasse will hold out as long as his mi-
litary means will enable him, and then execute
his menaced Van Spyck's experiment, we of
course cannot predict. If we were to decide the
question by any of the laws of reason, humanity,
or common sense, we should still say that there
will be no protracted siege, and that no bom-
bardment of an innocent city will excite against
his Dutch Majesty general execration. But if
General Chasse has received either permission
or instructions from the Court of the Hague to
bury himself and his garrison in the ruins of the
citadel, a great destruction of property and
of life must ensue, though without any other
result than that of exhibiting the policy of
Holland in a more odious colour, and in-
creasing the difficulties of any future ar-
rangement with Belgium. The French army
has advanced in such force, and is possessed of
such ample means of attack, that the siege can
neither he raised by the Dutch army, nor long
.protracted by the Dutch garrison. But, what-
ever result may be—whether the citadel of Ant-
sserp is destined to surrender in six hours, or
hoL!I out six weeks—the Tories, who have ex-
changed, from shame, their formerly odious
party title for that of Conservatives now equally
odious, have given their countrymen a specimen
of their patriotism, which can never he forgotten
so long as contempt or indignation shall rescue
their faction from oblivion. They have know-
ingly misrepresented the designs of their own
Government to foreign nations, in order to pro-
' voke their hostility. They have incited the Dutch
people, to their own injury, to resist the
arms of England—they have savagely ex-
ulted in every rumour or anticipation of dis-
aster, even by the accidents of winds and
weather, to the navy and to the naval ally of
England--they have almost committed high
treason by publicly invoking success to a people
with whom they say we are at war. A remark-
able instance of what might be called Conserva-
tive sedition, if it were not mere twaddle, now
lies before us, in an address to the people of
England, consisting of eight pages, and entitled
"War with Holland." The Stupid author, evis
s, or
dently without any knowledge of the übjectthat
any power of forming an opinion,
is tvils us
the navigation of the Scheldt llO concern of
Great Britain, and threatens us with an inva-
sion (probably from the fens of Holland) if we
persist in compelling his Dutch Majesty to sur-
render Antwerp " Suppose the Dutch," says
he, forbid the navigation of the Scheldt, it
will be nothing to us ; we get access to the heart
of Germany by Amsterdam and other towns in