The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-04 00:00:00

' /Fiore in Ireland. It required, indeed, a large
and of gullibility to he the ,Inp6s of the oppo.
tents of education in treiand who took for their
notto, " tine whole Bible." We learn that,
titer all the summonses to Ireland, and c.ll tin-
riumphings, the number of gentlemen present
iesides those on the platform, did not exceed
100, and that, including those on the platform,
the number present did nOt exceed 200. The
I meeting was a decided failure. The fanatical
Lords, Parsons, &c. had it nearly all to them-
, :elves. After a twaddling speech from Lord
Bexley, the Chairman, Mr. Shaw—the gentle-
inan who at the laat meeting announced to the
astonished Saxons, that the Irish Protestants
. were ready to rebel, if Government did not,
to oblige them, Lome the nible on the Ca-
tholics—began 'oy lamenting the thinness of the
meeting, to which cause we a'fe no doubt indebted
for the more sobercharacter of his yesterday's ad-
dress. "At their last meeting," he said, " he.
had offered proofs to their notice of the opposi- '
tion in Ireland to the new plan of the Govern-
ment. Since th.lnf, a protest against it—firm,
but temperate—had been made by eighteen of'
the twenty-three Irish Bish-.Ts—(Cheers)—an
example that had Ern followed by the Bishops
of this country ; for, upon a recent division in
the House of Lords upon this, not an English
Bishop had voted against the Bible."—( Hear.)
Only one English Bishop had refused to vote
against the only plan by which it is possible to
establish a National System of Education in
Ireland ! It was, no doubt, the remembrance
of the zeal of tflt, English Hierarchy on this and
all forme; occasions, to prevent the education of
the people, that led Earl Grey to bear testimony
to the affection in which they were so deservedly
held by the people of England. The object of
the Meeting was stated by the Rev. Mr. Cun-
ningham, of Harrow, who entreated the Meeting
to come liberally forward with their subscriptions,
and informed them that 25,000/. per annum
would he very acceptable to those who were
about to tight the Bible-battle in Ireland. The
Rev. Mr. Daly, one of the Irish Deputa-
tion, seeing there were but small hopes of
extracting a sum of this magnitude from John
Bull, lowered hi; demand to 15,000/. per
annum. We would not have Mr. Daly to be over
sanguine as to this sum. There is, indeed,
no saying what a few rich individuals fanatically
disposed may do ; but sure they are that the attempt
to reach the pockets of the British public in ge-
neral will fail. In the House of Lords, Lord
Montague took it upon him to contradict the
Bishop of Chichester, who stated that he had
been informed that in Scotland instruction in re-
ligion was generally left to the parents. We do
not believe that Lord Montague ever was in a
parish school in Scotland in his life, though he
was ready to contradict the Bishop of Chiches-
ter. The Bishop is fully borne out by the fol-
lowing statement in the Scotsman of Saturday

Fast :
" The Irish children," says our Northern contemporary,
under the proposed system, will receive a larger amount
of teligious instruction than is dispensed at this moment
to the youth of Scotland, where religion is suppo.ed to be
in a more flourishing condition than in either of the sister
kingdoms. Are the bigots and hypocrites who are raising
the present outcry aware of this ? Do they know that
h dh the Old and New Testament have ceased to be the
school-books in this city ? We have made inquiry, and we
know the fact en good authority. The Scriptures are still
used, we grant, in a few schools, but these are exceptions
to the general rule, certainly not forming a tithe of the
whole. Even a book of extracts is but partially em-
ployed ; and nobody dreams of calling in the clergyman
twice a week to complete the schoolmaster's task ! How
is this? Are our people immoral ? Do our children
grow op ignorant of religion ? No ; it is taught by fathers
and mothers to their families, or by teaciaers in Sunday
schools where the parents neglect their dtry ; and the seeds
of virtue and piety are much more effectually sown in this
way than by making a thousand chapters run through a
child's mind, like water through a sieve. The middle
classes of Edinburgh, a body of men as regular in their
conduct and as truly pious as are to be found in the three
kingdoms, are educated in this manrer. It will be flaws
to us to bear that the blustering, higntted, intolerant
Orangemen, who will not hear of any school-book but the
whole Bible, are half as moral and exemplary in their
lives. The mode of teaching is nearly the same in all the
large towns of Scotland ; and even i❑ the country pa-
rishes, though the exceptions there are more numerous.
Religion is not taught in our schools, and yet who says
that Scotland is behind its neighbours in virtue and piety?"
Our own recollections are quite in accordance
with the above statement. In the part of Scot-
land with which we were acquainted, the Bible
was only read in the schools in very remote
mountainous districts, and that not from prefe-
rence, but because it was the only book which
all could command. In nineteen out of twenty of
the schools a Bible was never seen. Collections,
as they were called, of extracts from the best
English writers, in prose and verse, by Mason,
Barry, &c., some of which had gone through
nearly half a hundred editions, were universal.
It never seemed to occur to any one that the
parents would not themselves attend to the reli-
gious instruction of their children. We agree
with the writer in the Scotsman, that—
" The truth is, th it the Irish Episcopalians insist for
the Bible as a class-book, not in the remotest degree from
a love of the sacred volume, but solely as a means of
driving the Catholics from the schools, and excluding
them as far as possible from the benefits of education.
Some thirty years ago the Church of England would ■ot
hear of the Bib'e being put into the hands of young or
old, without the Prayer-book as an accompaniment
Its adherents have been beaten from this ground ; and
now find that they can obstruct education as effectually
in Ireland, by insisting for the whole Bible being used as
s class-book—because the Bible so used must necessarily
be the Protestant version, which the C ttholics will not
read !"—Morning ( hronicle.
As the day fixed for the second reading of the
Reform Bill approaches, the anxiety of the people
becomes fearfully intense. The general belief is,
that it will be carried, though only by a small ma-
jority. One circumstance must strike the least
attentive observer—the almost total cessation of
petitions to the House of Lords. Their Lord-
ships will hardly, we think, draw from this the
conclusion that the people are less anxious than
they were last year for the measure. They may,
however, draw another conclusion from it,
which it is hardly necessary for us to state. The
Council of the Edinburgh Political Union have,
indeed, in their Address to the People of Scot-
land, distinctly stated, that they have " learned,
by sad experience, the little effect which the
petitions of the people produce upon the present
House of Peers. They have no sympathy with
the people—nothing but necessity will induce
them to support a measure, the object of which
is to overthrow a system which so many of them
have a selfish interest in upholding." This is
plain language. But with the second reading of
the Bill, the cause of the people is far from be-
ing gained. The waverers, 1. e. those who love
the system of governing by corruption, but
would rather gain their object by fraud than too
open an insult to the nation, will stir heaven and
earth in the Committee, and afterwards, to deprive
the Bill of its character of efficiency. They will
strive so to mutilate the Bill as to allow a ma-
jority of the Representatives to be returned by
those who have interests opposed to thei nterests
of the people. If the balance is given to the
enemies of the people, they conceive that corrup-
tion will succeed ere long in regaining what it
has lost. We may be assured that the efforts of I

these enemies of the people will be incessant and
vigorous. The Lords are judging in their own
cause ; and if the judges remain the same, we
can be at no loss in anticipating the decision.
There is but one course by which the decision
of the House can be made to accord with the
interests of the nation—a liberal creation of
Peers identified in principles with the Reformers.
'Fill such a creation is announced, the people
will do well not to be sanguine in their expecta•
tions. Let them make up their minds to the
consequences of a second rejection-, or, what is
tantamount, such a mutilation of the measure as
to render it utterly worthless. The Council of
the Edinburgh Political Union appear to be
prepared for the worst. " With the Ministry,"
they declare, " does the responsibility now lie.
Let us continue our confidence in them, until they
have proved themselves unworthy of it. But
if they allow themselves to be defeated a
second time, the people must re-assemble. Such
a display of popular feeling and popular deter-
mination, must then be made, as will convince
both Ministers and the House, that a resolute
and united people are not to be trifled with."
A heavy responsibility does, indeed, rest on
Ministers, if, after exciting the hopes of this
nation ; if after calling on the people to rally
round their patriotic King, that by one grand
simultaneous movement, the organical Reform,
which had been so long the work of every sin-
cere lover of his country, might be effected
without disorder and without bloodshed—if,
after the people have so nobly responded to the
summons of Ministers—the boon should be
once more withheld from a fastidious regard for
the feelings of the order to which the Premier
himself belongs. We trust his Lordship is
sufficiently sensible of the weight of his respon-
sibility—that he will shrink from none of the
means which are necessary to the general end
of efficient Reform. A nation ought not to
be lightly invited by a Goverument to a par-
ticipation in the work of organical Re-
form. The problem on which Earl Grey
entered, is one of tremendous difficulty.
When did ever yet the possessors of political
power in any country consent to be dispossessed
of it without a struggle ? An abstract love of
justice may influence individuals ; hut it is a
weak illusion to suppose that bodies of men are
ever influenced by other considerations than the
dread of the masses of the nation retained by
them in thraldom. He, then, who enters on
the task of otganical Reform, without following
it up by the adequate means at his command, is
one of the weakest or most wicked of mortals.
The masses of a nation cannot be agitated as
England has been agitated without imminent
peril to all that is valuable, should the nation be
disappointed in its hopes. As to the ultimate.
success of the measure, we never fir a moment
doubted it. No Government can ever hope to
coerce this nation, if united in demanding any
object. The soldiers never would forget that
they are Englishmen—never, at the bidding of
any Oligarchs, would they plunge their swords
into the bosoms of their countrymen. But,
good God what distress must ensue before
things come to this pass. We stand on the
edge of a precipice. It depends on Earl Grey
whether we shall keep our footing, or be preci-
pitated into a gulf of revolutionary disorders
and excesses.—Morning Chronicle.
A meeting of the colonial and commercial
interests, to consider the best means of protec-
tion against the ignorance and injustice of the
Government, is appointed for to-morrow. This
meeting, to which we made allusion yesterday,
will be one of the most important that has oc-
curred since the period when merchants,
bankers, and traders carried to the foot of
the Throne resolutions declaratory of their
determination to act promptly against a foreign
foe. Merchants, bankers, and traders are now
compelled to unite and act as in a common
cause, not indeed against an enemy in an-
other land, but against a system adopted
on the part of the servants of the Crown de-
structive of the best interests of the empire;
which breaks down the national spirit, blights the
enterprise of her merchants, and renders property
insecure in all departments of the state. The
circumstances under which this meeting is called,
the station of the individuals who have signed
the advertisement for convening it, the number
and respectability of those who have already
announced their determination to attend it,
are creating an interest that is duly appreciated
by the friends and enemies of conservative prin-
ciples; the former hailing it as a declaration of
the opinions of intelligent men, and the latter
writhing under the anticipation of it as an event
that of itself proves the want of confidence to-
wards Ministers on the part of the colonial
and commercial bodies, And when, as must
be the case in such an assemblage, collected
for such a purpose, a free discussion takes
place of all the trickery, jobbing, and igno-
rance, petty jealousies, party feeling, and gene-
ral mismanagement of the Government, it will
lead to an exposure that no public servants were
before subjected to, and will deprive them,
not of the confidence of the great interests of the
c,mntry, for that they have never possessed, but
of the support of every individual in the three
kingdoms not warped by the most violent poli-
tical predilections, who is capable of reflecting
upon the circumstances that will be brought
under consideration. The multiplied evils that
now afflict the country can be surmounted only
by property and intelligence and integrity, set-
ting themselves in array against the power of the
mob, which, in consequence of the deference
paid to it by those who ought to control it, in.
sinuates itself into all the ramifications of the
Government, and it as clearly perceived in the
insurrection in Jamaica, and in the recent excite-
ment in the Crown Colonies, as in the insolence
of Political Unionists, whether bearding the
Home Secretary in his office, or rioting in Fins-
bury-square on a day set apart for national humi-
liation. It is not theimmediate object of the
Meeting, important as that is, which excites so
great a sensation ; it is the high principle that it
involves which produces the effect, for it brings
in a close bond of union all the great interests of
the State to declare their opinion of and point
out a remedy for, if that be possible, the aggres-
sions committed by the most heartless and inca-
pable Administration with which a great country
was ever afflicted ; and which has nothing to
offer to starving manufacturers, bankrupt colo-
nists, and embarrassed merchants, but a Bill for
the oveethrow of the British Constitution.—
Morning Post.

It seems that 128 members of the University
of Oxford have, in convocation assembled, agreed
to petition the House of Lords against the Re-
form Bill. This they, no doubt, had a right to
do ; though there are thoie, perhaps, who will
think that they would hive been better em-
ployed in attending to the morals and education
of the youth intrusted to their care, than in thus
becoming professors in a science which, from
this proof of their political wisdom, it is clear