The Sun.
London, England, 1835-04-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is no reproach to Lord John Russell that he may
not be sufficiently wealthy to bear at his own cost
successive contests for a seat in Parliament ; or, if he
were, that he should decline crippling his future means
by such a kind of outlay. But it does, we think, no
credit to the Whigs as a party, or to the Noble House
of Russell as the head of it, that they should allow a
begging-box to go round for the purpose of soliciting
solitary shillings from their Radical allies. Still less
creditable is it to the Whigs to hand over the whole
affair to the Radicals, for such seems to have been the
case at the " ways and means" meeting on 'Wednesday,
at which not a single Whig of any note is stated
to have attended, or to have sent a single sove-
reign, or even shilling, towards the good cause. In
one sense, to be sure, there may on the one hand be
a degree of justice in this, which is not so obvious on
the other ; for he must be blind, indeed, who does not
perceive that the game which Lord John Russell has
been playing, and the partial success of which has
placed him in his present position, is much more that
of the Radical than of any class of the community, be
they Whigs, or what not, who are interested in the
preservation of existing institutions ; and it would be
worse than folly were the greatest holder of what Mr.
Burke emphatically pronounces to be " the plunder of
the Church" to contribute any portion of its present
revenues to an object, one of the ultimate, if not first,
results of which must be the restoration to their pri-
mary objects of all those grants to which we allude.
If the surplus revenues of the Protestant Church,
either in Ireland or England—for they are one—are
to be appropriated to the re-establishment and ad-
vancement of Popery, surely even-handed justice will
not be long in reclaiming and appropriating to the same
pious uses those enormous grants of Church property
which are now vested in so many lay hands. Well then
may the most influential among the Whigs, well may
the head of the house of Russell itself, shrink from
opening their purse-strings to such an object. But then
why court the paradox—why solicit the aid which this
begging-box project implies ? Why accept the pay of
those whose work the Whig leader, it is to be hoped,
cannot seriously mean to perform ? The dilemma
which it involves is an awkward one, which the com-
monest foresight would avoid. The time must come,
and probably is not far distant, when the Whigs must
disclaim, as they last year did, the motives, the asso-
ciation, and the influence which are now, as then, im-
puted to them. But with what colour of common
honesty or fair dealing will Lord John Russell, if re-
turned to Parliament by the shillings of the Radicals,
cast off the masters whose livery and whose wages he
consents to take ? At any rate he must, we imagine,
deeply lament that in the great measure of Parliamen-
tary Reform, with which his name is so honourably
associated, the cost of elections had not been so cut
down as to have rendered subscriptions, either in his
own case or that of others, wholly unnecessary. This,
we have little doubt, might have been done, and of
course may still be effected ; nor will the full benefit of
the Reform Act ever be obtained till the expense of
elections be so reduced, as to become no longer a serious
burden to any one.—Morning Herald.
The Tories, to do them justice, are good tacticians :
and as they have it much at heart to weaken Ministers
in Parliament, we may be certain that they will spare
neither exertion nor money in the approaching elec-
tions. In some cases the opposition may, perhaps, be
considered as of the nature of a feint, that the attention
of the Whigs may be distracted. We cannot, there-
fore, yet speak with certainty as to the places which
will be seriously contested. But we can be at no loss
in affirming, that South Devonshire will be the princi-
pal scene of contention. They will stir heaven and
earth to be revenged on Lord John Russell, for the
distinguished success with which he led the Oppo-
sition that drove them from power. The Parsons
are in the field early and late, and do not scruple
to avail themselves of pious frauds in support
of what they call the Protestant cause. Among other
falsehoods they have been, we understand, circulating,
that Lord John Russell has become a convert to Ca-
tholicism, and that the late Lady Ribblesdale is a Ca-
tholic. Lady Ribblesdale is, and always has been, a
Protestant ; but if the falsehood serve a present pur-
pose, that is enough. Bribery and intimidation will
be extensively resorted to. These are the means on
which the Tories place their principal reliance. Indeed
the effrontery with which they announced that the sub-
scription would be headedby Lord Rolle for 1,0001., is
not the least singular part of the business. It was deemed
politic, we suppose, to publish betimes the amount of
the funds available for bribery, that the more merce-
nary electors might know where they could find a good
market for their votes. We are much amused at the
assurance of an Evening Contemporary (the Standard)
in asking why the Reformers of Westminster, Man-
chester, and other places should subscribe towards the
expenses of Lord John Russell ? Not a word against
the subscription of 1,0001. by Lord Rolle, and the
contributions of the Tory Aristocracy and Clubs
Lord John Russell has not solicited subscriptions, but
the People, who consider the cause of his Lordship
their own, are determined that that cause shall not be
lost for want of funds for the necessary expenses.
The Tories have not subscribed all their money for
nothing. All who have had experience of elections
must know that, independently of direct bribery, clever
election-agents, with money in abundance at their
disposal, can greatly weaken another party less
liberally supplied with funds, by monopolizing the
means of conveyance, S:c. The Reformers have, very
properly, thought that no gentleman ought, in fairness,
to be called on to sacrifice his private fortune in the
cause of the public ; and that they would be without
excuse if, after such note of preparation by the Tories,
they were to leave Lord John to be overwhelmed by
exertions purchased by lavish contributions of Tory
Aristocrats. We understand that Lord Morley has
been very much belied in this case. So far from coun-
tenancing his steward in canvassing in his name, for
Mr. Parker, he has, we are assured, promised all the
assistance to Lord John Russell which he can give con-
sistently with his duty as a Peer of Parliament. His
Lordship has left to Lord Rolle the task of explaining
how a Peer can reconcile with his obligation to abstain
from interference in elections for Members of the
Commons' House, the subscription of 1,0001. for
Mr. Parker. Lord Morley has declared that his
steward, who, it seems, is an agent of Mr. Parker, was
not authorized to use his name to influence any of the
electors to vote for that Gentleman. With respect to
the other elections :—We believe that Mr. Ord, who
is to be opposed at Newport, has not much cause of
alarm. Appearances, too, are greatly in favour of Sir
Thomas Troubridge at Sandwich. Mr. Robert
Steuart, before reaching Jedburgh, was met by a great
body of the inhabitants, who had stationed scouts to
give warning of his approach, and he entered the town
in procession. The feeling throughout Scotland is
excellent ; and there is not the slightest chance of his
not being returned for the Haddington District of
Burghs. The Lord Advocate's election for Leith
is, we believe, quite sure, though an opponent has
taken the field against him. In Cambridge, Mr.
Spring Rice will, we believe, be returned without
opposition. The Tories will do what they can
to prevent the return of Lord Morpeth for the
West Riding ; but we trust his Lordship is safe.
Lord Seymour is quite sure of Totnes ; and
though Mr. Rolfe will be opposed in Penrhyn
he is supposed to be safe. Hitherto no opponent has
started against Lord Howick, in Northumberland ;
but the Tories speak of sending down Me Coiling-
wood. A Mr. Braidley has a second time taken the
field against Mr. Poulett Thomson, for Manchester ;
but we cannot believe the enlightened inhabitants of
our great manufacturing capital will hesitate this time,
any more than the last, between the enlightened Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade and an individual who,
however well fitted for teaching in a Sunday-school,
ought not to think of representing a place of the im-
portance of Manchester. We will not libel the in-
habitants of Manchester, by supposing that their sen-
timents have undergone any change since the last
election, or that their desire to return a liberal and
enlightened representative is less evident now, in con-
sequence of the successful exertions of the Reformers,
than it was at that period.—Morning Chronicle.
We have been urged by several correspondents to
put clearly and plainly before the public the actual na-

ture, and the probable effect, of Lord John Russell's •
resolution relative to the Irish Church. It is said, not
without some show of truth we think, that while one
class of persons abuses the resolution, merely because
it is Lord John Russell's, and another praises it for no
better reason, the real merits of the case are wholly
overlooked. We will, as shortly as possible, give our
readers the means of judging in this important matter.
Lord John Russell, then, assuming that the revenues
of the Irish Church were twice as great as in reality
they are, and taking it as certain that the Irish Pro-
testant Establishment was so rich that, without making
ducks and drakes of their money, the Clergy could
not possibly get rid of their superabundant wealth,
moved a resolution that the surplus revenues of the
Church should be appropriated to purposes of educa-
tion. It was in vain to tell Lord John Russell that
many of the rich and bloated Clergy of his imagina-
tion had received no tithes for three years past, and
that they and their families were well nigh starving.
Even the following passage from a letter of one of these
unhappy persons, who Lord John Russell will have it
are as rich as Jews, read in the house, and urged with
all the fervid eloquence and manly feeling that cha-
racterized the speech of Sir R. Peel, had no effect up-
on the ruthless spoliator :—" I effected," says the poor
parson, " the composition in my parish (in 1832), at
a sacrifice of 1501. per annum of the income I was for
years in receipt of—namely, 5801.; thus voluntarily re-
duced by me to 4301. By the proposed bill (Sir R.
Peel's Tithe Bill) this will be farther reduced to
3221. 10s.; out of which I should pay 501. insurance,
43/. rent, 291. first fruits ; leaving a balance of 200/.los.
to support my beloved wife, ten children, and myself,
after being above 40 years an unworthy labourer in the
Christian vineyard." 49 How strange it is that an appe-
tite for plunder, even whetted with Woburn, should still
crave and long for the pittances that poor ecclesiastics
are content not only to live upon but to labour for !
But why should we complain of Lord John Russell,
when a House of Commons, an assembly of Christian
and Protestant men, was found to sanction the scheme,
and pass the resolution ? We come next to the man-
ner in which the resolution is to be carried into effect.
Sir Henry Hardinge pressed Lord John Russell upon
this practical point. He reminded the mover of the
resolution, that any Tithe Commutation Bill must
materially reduce the revenues of the clergy ; that
according to one proposal they would get 70/., and
according to another 751., in lieu of every 1001., which
they have now a right to claim for tithes ; and he
therefore begged to know how Lord John Russell
proposed to make out the surplus which his resolution
appropriated. This was The language used by Sir
H. Hardinge :—" When the Church Temporalities'
Bill was introduced to the House, Lord Grey, then at
the head of that Government, stated in the House of
Lords, in very distinct terms, that after all the clergy
had received what was due under the plan proposed,
there was to be a portion of the Church revenues set
apart for the augmentation of small livings, and for the
building of churches and glebe-houses. Lord Grey
said this was a matter of so much importance, that in
his opinion no distribution, no appropriation of church
revenues, should take place until small livings had been
augmented ; and in the speech by which he introduced
the Church Temporalities' Bill he estimated church-
cess at 60,0001., the augmentation of small livings at
46,0001., the building of churches at 20,0001., and of
glebe-houses at 10,0001., making in all 136,0001. a
year to be appropriated to those important purposes
after the clergy had been paid. It was natural, then, to
ask whether the Noble Lord (J. Russell) meant to ad-
here to that view of the matter, or whether lie
intended to begin to reckon his surplus before
making provision for the augmentation of those small
livings, and the erection of churches and glebe-
houses, or what was the precise course he meant to
pursue on the subject ?" And what was Lord John
Russell's reply ? Whi, that lie would have nothing
to do with Lord Grey s plan ; that if he found in any
given parish so small a number of Protestants that, in
his opinion, either parson or church was too great a
luxury for so few souls, he would take away the eccle-
siastical property of the parish, and devote it to pur-
poses of education,—no matter how many other pa-
rishes there might be thronged with Protestants and in
want of funds to provide for their spiritual nurture.
The essence of Lord John Russell's scheme therefore
is, that souls are not worth saving except in batches of
a given number ; that no Protestant should be taught
the way to heaven unless he lives in a district suffi-
ciently populous to afford what the late Paymaster of
the Forces considers a Christian company. And
this is what Lord John Russell calls reforming
the Church ! It is, however, neither more nor less
than taking the surest means of destroying it, and of
extirpating Protestants and the Protestant religion
from the Irish soil. The time is at hand when his
Lordship must descend to particulars—must tell us
whether 5, 50, or 500 souls arc in his chandler's-shop
view of religion, worth looking after ; and so soon as
he has determined that interesting point, the White-
-boys will take very good care to reduce the amount of
their Protestant fellow-parishioners below the parson
point. If Lord John Russell should be so good as to
allow fifty Protestants in a parish the means of wor-
shipping God after the fashion of their forefathers—
but wisely, religiously, and righteously, resolve that
any less number are too few to be taught the perform-
ance of man's first duty, and to enjoy the highest privi-
lege of mortality—then there can be little doubt that
the difference between forty-nine and any other num-
ber of Protestants will afford too tempting subjects for
the Papist's pike to need farther care in this world.—
Times.

places, at the whole of which they will find Conserva•
tives ready and willing enough to appeal to the opi-
nions of the people, and strong enough, as we con-
fidently believe, to bear off the prize of popu-
lar favour from their Whig- Radical competitors.—
The right-thinking and fair-dealing people of
Great Britain, as the approaching elections will show,
have no sympathy with a body of statesmen who have
obstructed, and delayed at least for one whole year,
many legislative measures of admitted usefulness,
some of them being measures of evident, indis-
pensable, and urgent necessity, for the single and
undisguised purpose of forcing themselves into
office. Neither have the rational and honest people
of Great Britain any sympathy with a body of
statesmen who, for the above selfish and sordid
purpose, have put themselves absolutely in the
power of a disloyal, reckless, and unprincipled
agitator, for the description of whom, up to the
very moment of their base coalition with him, they
could scarcely find in the English language terms of
reprobation sufficiently severe. Nor can the people
of Great Britain have any sympathy with a body of
statesmen—and, we repeat, the approaching elec-
tions will prove the fact—who have sought to pur-
chase for themselves a way to power by delivering
the Protestant Church of Ireland, defenceless and
in fetters into the hands of its most bigotted and
implacable foes. The real tendency and object of
the principle for which Lord John Russell, acting in
conjunction with Mr. O'Connell, has obtained the
sanction of the House of Commons, and which Lord
Melbourne, speaking in the House of Lords under
terror of the same dangerous and profligate agitator,
declared his resolution to adopt and carry forward to
its practical consequences, will soon be thoroughly un-
derstood by the reflecting and intelligent people of
Great Britain ; and from the moment that it is so Lord
Melbourne, Lord John Russell, and all who have
taken office along with them will become the objects of
a deeper abhorrence and a more unmitigated scorn
than is yet felt towards them, while the honourable, up-
right, and discreet members of Sir Robert Peel and
the Duke of Wellington's Administration will
obtain a station at once more exalted and more
secure, in the affection and esteem of a grateful peo-
ple. What is the tendency and object of that Parlia-
mentary pledge by means of which the degenerate
Whigs purchased the aid of the Repeal and anti-Pro-
testant Irish faction, and with this aid forced them-
selves upon the country, in the degraded and contempti-
ble character of an Administration without power, of
an Administration with no other function in the State
than that of expounding and promoting the objects of a
faction, no single member of which it has dared to pre-
sent to the country as an avowed colleague—of an
Administration disqualified for the honourable exercise
of thought or reflection in relation to the common weal,
and having its duties and powers circumscribed to re-
ceiving its quarterly pay, and obeying the daily corn-
mands of Mr. O'Connell ? The present Ministers of the
Crown have agreed to the destruction of the Protestant
Church in Ireland, to the extirpation of the Protestant
religion in Ireland. This is the price they have been
contented to pay for the assistance of Mr. O'Connell
to help them into place. The accusation is a heavy
one ; but if Statesmen are justly chargeable with
whatever must flow of necessity from the measures
they adopt, and the principles they acknowledge and
establish, the accusation, grave as it is, is fully war-
ranted by evident and notorious circumstances. The
principle which Mr. O'Connell has purchased, by his
Parliamentary services, or extorted by the menace of
his Parliamentary opposition, from the present Govern-
ment, raises in every parish in Ireland the question,
whether the Church revenue is or is not greater than
is necessary for the spiritual wants of the Protestant
part of the population of such parish. And this ques-
tion, in reference to each particular parish, will have to
be decided after an inquiry which, as every man who
knows any thing of Ireland must know, will neces-
saril) assume in each instance the character of the
most exasperating and envenomed litigation be-
tween two conflicting parties. Oaths will have to
be administered for the purpose of these inqui-
ries ; and we need only refer to the last Dublin
election, or, to cite an instance more recent and
nearer home, to the Parliamentary votes and conduct of
the Roman Catholic Members of the present Parlia-
ment, every one of whom has sworn not to seek to im-
pair the rights and privileges of the Protestant Church,
in order to show that in the conflict of swearing the
Protestants—the defenders of the property of the Pro-
testant Church—are sure to be in every instance de-
feated. Then, by whom will the principle of appro-
priation, as it is called, have to be administered ? By
persons nominated expressly we may be sure, if the
present Ministers continue the advisers of the Crown,
by Mr. O'Connell. It is clear then that there will be
no want of suitable witnesses, or of convenient Judges,
in the great Popish process against the Protestant
Church. Is there any one so stupid or so insane as to
contemplate such a process without perceiving that it
must end, that it is meant to end, by those who have in-
stituted it, in the complete overthrow, the utter destruc-
tion, the entire sweeping away of the Protestant
Church of Ireland ? And is it possible to imagine
that such a process as this can be carried on in Ire-
land without deeply aggravating the discord and the
agitation, political and religious, which have hitherto
distracted that unhappy country ? Will the Roman
Catholic Priests, with the Protestant Church held out
to them as a prey, permit the smallest portion of its
endowments which any amount of perjury, we fear we
may add any amount of murder, can secure to elude
their grasp ? Lord John Russell and Mr. O'Con-
nell's principle of appropriation is, in fact, a sentence
upon the Protestant Church of Ireland, that it and
its congregations shall be destroyed together by the
combined and simultaneous action of chicanery, of
perjury, and of murder.—Morning Post.
We know no duty, at the present moment, more in-
cumbent upon the Reformers of Great Britain, than
that of unanimously meeting for the purpose of re-
turning, free of all expense, those Members of the
present Government who have been obliged to vacate
their seats. The Tories, with their usual fallacious
expectations, calculate that they will be able to defeat
more than one-half of the Ministerial candidates ;
and, assuredly, if the wish could effect the intention,
they would oust the whole. But if the people will only
do themselves justice, the Tories will find themselves in
the same minority of which they had the pleasure of
being on every occasion since the meeting of Parlia-
ment. It is most important, however, that every man
of public spirit—that every Reformer—that every one
who hates Toryism in all its phaSes, should give his
mite towards the election of Lord John Russell for
Devonshire. We give ours with all our heart ; and it
affords us infinite pleasure to say that in almost every
house of public resort, where the people have an op-
portunity of speaking their sentiments, subscriptions
are on foot to forward the election, and to defray the
seuxpbsecnrsiepstionLeet
veervy house,
yerlandlo ho
rd
atwe
treasurer—every
be a house of
seurer_everyß Re-
former a contributor—and the expenses will be paid at
a shilling a head. With regard to the merits of the
qu
the
ieofno,r
innot
Bill? a wLo rd
or
di s tooh
John Russell.
said. W
si.
Whoh o introduced
supported
it ? Lord John Russell. Who fought the battle of
the Dissenters ? Lord John Russell. Who, by his
wisdom and prudence, drove the anti-national and
anti-reform Ministry from its hold of office ? Lord
John Russell. Need we say more ? Need we, after
stating these facts, call upon all true Reformers to use
their utmost endeavours to ensure his return for Devon-
shire—his highly honourable office as leader of the
Opposition—and to tell the country, through his re-
turn, that it is still true to the principles of Reform,
and that it will die in the breach rather than yield to
those who have been invariably opposed to the interests
of the people ?—Morning Advertiser.

The character and position of the new Administra-
tion are not such as to inspire the nation with the
least respect for the men who constitute it, or the least
confidence in the measures they are likely to introduce.
And the low estimate which is formed by the country
of the present Ministers of the Crown is doubly mor-
tifying to their adherents, from the contrast it presents
to the general, we may almost say the unanimous, tes-
timonies of popular esteem, confidence, and affection
which have been afforded to Sir Robert Peel. The
Whig-Radical journals labour, we perceive, to depre-
ciate these manifestations of national favour, believing
naturally enough that this would be the most acceptable
and valuable service they could render their employers.
It is intimated, for example, that the numerous addresses
to the King and Sir Robert Peel, the lists of which were
sufficient to crowd our columns for several successive
days, are of no value, inasmuch as they were not
agreed to at public meetings. Let our contempo-
raries content themselves. There will be lic meet-
ings within the next month more than enough to
satisfy them and their patrons, and attended, probably,
by consequences not the most agreeable to either. The
Conservatives are about to shew that they do not
shrink from public meetings when it is necessary or
useful to attend them. There is very soon to be a
public meeting, from which we can assure our Minis-
terial contemporaries, the Conservatives will not absent
themselves, in Devonshire. There is to be another in
Yorkshire, and another at Manchester, and others of
the same nature at Harwich, at Taunton, at Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and we know not at how many other

* The whole extract, which cannot be too often
read, ran thus :
" I entreat you, if practicable, to create a fund to provide
for the widows and orphans of clergymen, which the contem-
plated reduction of their incomes would render peculiarly well
timed, as many must now be disabled from partially attaining
that object by effecting insurances on their lives. And, lastly,
to relieve them from future instalments (together with arrears
now due) to the Board of First Fruits, for loans advanced
them to build their glebe-houses. I sincerely wish mine was
an isolated case, but if many are similarly circumstanced with
myself, they have great difficulties to encounter. I effected
the composition in my parish (in 1832) at a sacrifice of 1501.
per annum of the income I was for years in receipt of—namely,
580/. ; thus voluntarily reduced by me to 4301. By the pro
posed bill this will be further reduced to 3221. 10s. ; out of
which I should pay 501. insurance, 43/. rent, 29/. first fruits ;
leaving a balance of 2001. 10s. to support my beloved wife,
ten children, and myself, after being above 40 years an un-
worthy labourer in the Christian vineyard. A murmur, how-
ever, shall not escape my lips, for I feel convinced the welfare
of the Established Church is the object you and the Govern-
ment are most anxious to promote. Were the second measure
adopted (which I have humbly suggested), I should regard as
trivial every pecuniary difficulty I might be destined to en-
counter, for it would console me under them all, and pluck
from the pillow of death the only thorn this world could plant
there. As a small atonement for thus presuming to trespass
on you, permit me to offer the accompanying poem, for which
my eldest son obtained a Vice-Chancellor's prize. He was
equally successful with two other poems, but the enclosed is
the only one published."

In the year 1778, just previous to the French war,
the Mayor of Dublin was in a Coffee-house, when a gentle-
man was reading hi a newspaper, among other items of news,
that the French had " taken umbrage." The wise man who
believed that " umbrage" was some fortified town, when he
went home, consulted his gazetteer, and failing in his search,
asked one of his friends where " Umbrage" was situated. The
story got abroad, and the caricaturists immediately rook advan-
tage of it. A droll picture appeared,—" Castle Umbrage,"
situated on an eminence, and the Mayor, with the police and
the posse comitatus, marching in procession to invest it
This story, as is the case with all good stories, lived on the
Mayor till the day of his death..—JV'ew York Knickerbocker.

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1835.