The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-08 00:00:00

would have been saved. When Mr. Boyd, an
English subject, was murdered in cold blood by
the orders of Ferdinand of Spain, our Govern-
ment showed that sort of " forbearance" which
is not easily distinguished from: cowardice, and
which is not calculated to raise the character
of England or promote the security of English
subjects among the nations of Europe. His
blood sunk in the earth unexpiated, as though
it were the blood of a dog ; and now Miguel
rivals Ferdinand in insulting the British power,
and in boasting of having insulted it with im-
punity. It is not the British officers, but the
Government, that are responsible. Our Minis-
ters have done enough to make Miguel their
implacable enemy for ever, and yet they still
hope to keep on good terms IA ith him. Having
recognised Donna Maria, as the Duke of Wel-
lington did, the lawful Sovereign of Portugal,
and she being now in possession of Oporto, and
occupying the Douro with her vessels, why is it
that our Ministers think it necessary to make
humble excuses to the usurper for placing two
vessels of war in the Douro to protect British
life and property ? If they have the consent of
Donna Maria, now Queen both de jure and de
facto in that portion of her dominionQ, is it not
enough ? Our correspondent says, with reason,
" I wish the British Ministry would act a manly
part, and openly declare for either party, instead
of covertly giving a colourable assistance to one."
If our Ministry proceed in this undignified line
of policy much longer, the flag of England, in-
stead of being regarded as the symbol of the
sovereignty of the seas, will be treated by all
Powers as the most despised bit of rag that

floats upon the waters.—Morning Herald.

We have extracted from the Birmingham
Journal a report of a vestry meeting held in
Birmingham—that active work-shop of Re-
form—when an annual Church-rate was abso-

lutely refused by a great majority of an immense
meeting of rate-payers ! Our readers will re-
collect, that we have inserted several reports of
adjourned meetings of the vestry of this parish
(which contains 100,000 inhabitants), when the
rate was always sedulously opposed, and on
different grounds postponed. A crisis, it ap-
pears, as might naturally have been anticipated,
has at length occurred ; and the terrors of the
law are braved by the population of that great
midland manufacturing district. It cannot be
doubted that this political disease is contagious,
and that in the temper of the country towards the
Church Establishment, it will soon become more

extensively epidemic than the cholera. We have
repeatedly called public attention to the subject
of tithes and church-rates ; and we most ardently
hope that the Government will take timely warn-
ing, before England is plunged into the
gulph of Irish distraction ; and the Minis-
ters will boldly and wisely mature a plan of
Church Reform, which shall give satisfaction

to a disgusted and discontented people. The
establishment must be thoroughly repaired,

or the whole structure will be razed to the
ground. A Gothic Hierarchy of such antiquity,
sinking in its foundations, and with a decayed
and patch-work superstructure, must needs be in
a very crumbling condition. The High Church-
men have themselves to blame for the dangers
which encompass them. In the possession of
dominant and despotic power, they rode over the
Laity for centuries rough-shod, and the people
are now discharging the long aecoutit of their
oppressions. Popular ignorance was long the
bulwark of the Church Establishments of

Europe, and the poverty of the Laity was the
moat which safely protected Monasteries and
Abbeys. But the spell of superstition is broken,
and the light of knowledge has exposed the vul-
nerable points of Hierarchies. It is now futile
to oppose the law to the will of an enlightened
population. Legal force, not founded on reason,
has lost its efficacy ; and one of the first objects
of a Reformed House of Commons will be to
eradicate the monstrous abuses of the English
Church. We trust that the reforming spirit of
the forthcoming Parliament will not be opposed
by the Sovereign and the Peers, who, on a
rormer occasion in our history, brought about
destruction where reformation only was needed
and originally required.—Morning Chronicle.
In the last number of Tait's Edinburgh Ma-
gazine, on which we have hitherto had much
cause to bestow a due meed of approbation,
there is a very violent and determined attack on
the political conduct of his Majesty's present ad-
visers, which is written with some ability we
allow, but in point of the spirit which pervades
it, and the extravagance of the accusations which
are brought forward, would do credit to any con-
servative print in the United Kingdom. It ac-
cuses them of extravagance, of failure in moral
duty towards the people, of breach of faith in
various important matters, of having unnecessa-
rily augmented the army ; of having persecuted,
instead cf endeavouring to improve, Ireland ;
and, finally, winds up the impeachment with the
following grave summary of charges :
" Thus, if we consider the nature of their general pro•
ceedings, or view the particular cases by which those pro-
ceedings are accompanied, causes of suspicion and distrust
arise at every step : not such suspicion as would arise
only in the mind of one prone to jealousy, but even in the
minds of confiding friends. The people were confiding
friends of Ministry ; and not till this hearty confidence
had been shaken, by repea•ed trials, did they entertain or
express any doubt. Now we have hid two years' sad ex-
perience. Every day bas brought something deserving of
reproach ; and the sum of their misdeeds has at length
mounted so high, that the people can no longer be silent
spectators of these proceedings. If the Ministers be really
of honest intentions, they will take these remonstrances in
good part; they will rejoice at being warned in time, and
will regulate their future conduct by what they see to be
the feelings of the nation."
It is well known to all reflecting persons, that
it is much more easy to make charges than to
rebut them, and that no government ever
existed, either in this or in any other country,
against which similar charges might not have
been brought, as well as sustained, with a con-
siderable show of reason ; and it is equally well
known to, as it will also be allowed by, them,
that, in order to form a just and correct opinion,
the peculiar situation of the Government so
charged must be taken into consideration, and
due allowance made for the difficulties with
which it may have been encumbered. Any
judgment formed on different grounds is evidently
an act of injustice towards the accused ; for be-
tween the wish and the capability, the will and the
power of accomplishment, there is frequently a
great and an insurmountable barrier. Archimedes
might have raised the earth into " middle
air" had he had a point on which to fix a
lever of sufficient power ; and the Whigs—
parva componere niagnis—might have accom-
plished much more than they have, had the
means been at their disposal. But how have
they been employed—how have they been
situated ? Had they not at their first entrance
into office to contend with a corrupt representa-
tion—a representation elected under the auspices
of the 'roues, and which only turned in their
favour on one great question—Parliamentary
Reform—because it received an impulse from
without stronger than the internal feeling by