The Sun.
London, England, 1835-07-16 00:00:00

Majesty) a hope " that the workings of the cabal upon
the Royal mind may not have produced a grave cala-
mity, to which it might beindelicatefurther to allude."
It is thus that a humane solicitor, to whom the duty
of prosecuting a culprit has been confided, asks for a
verdict against the prisoner, throwing out the hint that
if the plea of " Not guilty" be withdrawn, and
" Guilty" entered in its stead, the prisoner may hope
to obtain mercy on the grounds of " Temporary In-
sanity," or some other plea, which the ingenuity of his
Counsel may set up,- and to which the prosecutor
will not take exception ! But, should the prisoner
adopt the injudicious course of persisting in the
plea of " Not guilty,"—or, to use the words of the
indictment, to " Let it be fully perceived that no
permanency of liberal policy, at home or abroad
(i.e. no invitations to dinners or beds at the Castle),
can possibly co-exist with the powers which the
consent of the nation has delegated to the head of a
family (meaning the prisoner) whom it has raised from
the government of a poor insignificant province, to a
situation of unexampled affluence and splendour,
then indeed the law must take its course—or, in the
allegorical words of the indictment,—" Who that is
capable of comprehending the character of English-
men can hesitate as to the conclusion to be drawn from
a conviction of this kind being once firmly impressed
upon their minds ?" i. e. upon the minds of the Jury,
who must eventually return a verdict accordingly—
and the prisoners be left for execution I It is in those
terms, and after that fashion, that the King of Eng-
land is now daily addressed by the avowed journal
and organ cf his Ministers. It is fit that the country
should clearly see and determine what shade of differ-
ence there exists between this language held by a
journal known to contain daily lucubrations from these
Ministers, and a manifesto drawn up and signed by
Ministers themselves. The connection of the King's
Government and the Morning Chronicle—the iden-
tity of their interests, and, as it were, of their existence
—is known, not only to every Member of the
House of Commons, but to every Member, if
not of the whole, at least of the political, commu-
nity. The principal "hand" on that journal (to
use the language of the profession) is that multifaced
Commissioner—that " trusty and well-beloved cousin"
—openly named as editor of the Morning Chronicle,
by Mr. Charlton, in the debate of Tuesday night last.
The obligations of the Government to this Gentleman
are many and various, and the Commissionerships
given by the Government, in requital, are various and
many. There is a running account between them,
balanced, as it may be, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
If there is a good " Commission" about to be set on
foot, " our trusty and well-beloved cousin" is the first
to know it—and to be provided for in it. He is the
right•hand man—" to get up a feeling, or get up a
row"—to communicate with a Political Union at Bir-
mingham—or to open a parley with the gentle natures
of the Trades' Unions in some other loyal city or
borough. But, to take notes for what Mr. Edward
Ellice calls " a scalper for Royalty," there is no
one like " our trusty cousin." In this respect " the
well-beloved" is invaluable, and is, accordingly,
" hail fellow well met,"—" hand-in-glove" with the
Treasury Bench—from the highest to the lowest.
Lord Palmerston does not hesitate to submit his
ungloved hand to his greasy clutch—and the Right
Hon. Mr. Thomson gives him " the grip" with a bro-
ther's cordiality. The all but eicial communication of
the Government with this Gentleman is not attempted
to be disguised—no more than the Gentleman's own
editorial position at the Morning Chronicle is at-
tempted to be denied. The one may be seen daily in
the lobby of the House of Commons ;—the other may
be ascertained nightly at the office of the journal in
question. With this Gentleman we say the con-
nection of the Government, and their hourly inter-
course, is not denied. Can, then, their participa-
tion in, or foreknowledge of, these attacks on the
Sovereign—if not their absolute dictation of them—
be doubted ? The Editor of the Morning Chro-
nicle has influence with them sufficient to procure
a copy of a Bill not delivered even to Members
of the, House themselves (as exemplified in a recent
instance)—they have influence with him to give
effect to " hints" which no other Journal (not even
the Globe or Courier) would have the hardihood to
publish. The Judges of the land read these lucubra-
tions, and they are loud in the expression of their
opinion—but the Attorney-General is mute. " Rank
treason I" is the exclamation from the lips of every
loyal man in the country ;—" powerful writing" is the
commentary from every mouth on the Treasury Bench.
The threat of expulsion to the Sovereign from the
Throne and country appeared in the Ministerial
Journal of the morning, and at noon the same day,
these men stood in his presence, and scanned the
lineaments of their Royal Master, to see if they
grew pale under the denunciations launched against
him ! But will the country calmly look on and
see the King subjected to these indignities ? Will
the Gentlemen of England wait until the satellites of
Mr. O'Connell, like the soldiers of Brennus, break
into the Senate-House, and pluck the beard, and smite
with the sword the heads, of our Senators ? Is it no
sign of our subjection to this man and his " Gauls,"
that the Sovereign is thus openly insulted—and
threatened by his own Ministers, that if he will not
admit them to eat at his board, and rest beneath his
roof, he shall be pulled down from his seat ? Or do
we wait until on some nearly balanced question of our
Church, or some, to us, equally precious institution,
Mr. O'Connell should unbuckle his belt and brand—
and fling them into the scale as " measurefor the con-
quered .nglish?"—Morning Post.
The rejection of Lord Radnor's Bill by the House
of Lords, for dispensing with the subscribing to the
Thirty-nine Articles as a test of admission to the Uni•
versities of Oxford and Cambridge, is a melancholy
evidence of what may be expected from the intellect
and liberality of that assembly. The Noble Mover
ably argued that the existence of such tests, which
have no parallel in any other University in the
world, is a disgrace to our country, and a reproach
to our religion. The Bishops, on the opposite side,
contended that the subscribing to the Articles: was
considered as a mere testimony of the matriculator
being a member of the Church of England, and not
as a voucher of his belief in the Articles themselves.
Now, after such admission, is it not worse than ridi-
culous to hear rational men contend for the continua-
tion of a system of falsehood, whereby individuals
are required to attach their signature to what they
do not understand, and which even if they did, it is
not expected they should believe ? Nor are there, we
confidently assert, any two members of the Church
perfectly agreed on the whole of the Articlis es. The
conscientious man who forbears attaching h
signa-
ture to an incomprehensible and inconsistent document
is excluded from the favourable cultivation of know-
ledge ; while the reckless tyro signs his name without
thinking of his religion, and struts into collegiate ho-
nours to the exclusion of his betters. The Bishop of
Llandaff, with an affectation of liberality, recommended
the establishment of separate Universities for the Dis-
senters, which, as Lord Melbourne, in an eloquent and
admirable speech, displaying considerable research;
proved to be calculated to keep alivedissensions and jea-
lousies, and prevent our youth from meeting at one place
in common, and being urged on by that spirit of liberal
emulation so advantageous in the prosecution of learned
and scientific investigation. The Duke of Wellington
admitted having signed the Articles when lately dubbed
Doctor at Cambridge, and contended that the Uni-
versity of Oxford could not maintain its authority, if
there were to be any discussion, or if Dissenters were
to be admitted to its Halls. Doctor Wellington is
right in his opinion that many of our ancient and 'vene-
rable institutions can neither bear the test of investi-
gation nor discussion. The majority against the se-
cond reading was 106. So much for the wisdom of
hereditary legislation I However, the time is approach-
ing when other tests will be applied to their Lordships ;
and, though, for their own sakes, as well as for the
peace of the country, we wish them safe over the or-
deal, we have our misgivings—their case seems one of
hopeless inveteracy, at least requiring a remedy as ra-
dical as the disease of their constitution. For our own
part we should wish a lenient treatment ; but if a just
and righteous necessity be forced upon the country,
our motto is—fiat justitia ruit e(elunt..llforning
Advertiser.

POST-OFFICE.

THE STIN, LONI)O.ST, liftritsDA y, JUL 16, 1835

The motion of Mr. Wallace, last Thursday, for the ap-
pointment of a Committee to inquire into the management
of the Post-office, ended, like many other motions for in-
quiry into long-existing and acknowledged abuses, without
any specific result. As is much the practice in the discus-
sion of similar subjects, the speakers vied with each other
in pointing out the vices and defects of the system com-
plained of ; a good deal of indignation was expended at the
bare thought that the evil had been left so long to exist,
and the state of the matter, after being rendered still more
glaring than it had been previously, was left just as it was.
Until a permanent set of Commissioners be appointed to
manage the business of the Post-office, Members of Par-
liament may go on deploring its defective management, and
inveighing against it, to just as little purpose as they have
done on this and other occasions. The testimony of
Lord Lowther about the unwillingness of the Post-office
authorities to give information speak volumes, not only as
to the unfitness of certain matters connected with the office
to transpire beyond a certain sphere, but also as to the force
of the reasons somewhere existing for a wish that ths sys-
tem should go on working in the same snug way as it has done
till now. His Lordship, who is acknowledged to be the
best man of business in Parliament, seems to have taken
more pains in making himself acquainted with the details
and intricacies of the Post-office service than any Post-
master-General that we have seen at the head of the de-
partment for many a year. His statement is entitled to
particular notice, not only on that account, but because it
establishes a concurrent testimony from men of all parties
as to the existence of very material defects and abuses, and
as to the necessity of divesting that department of the
drawbacks which have hitherto embarrassed its means of
utility to the public service. It was remarked in the course
of last Thursday's discussion, that during the space of the
last five years the head of the Post-office had been changed
not less than five times. Now, as each newly-appointed
Postmaster-General must have had to go through an
apprenticeship of some months, before he could under-
stand the complicated machinery of the service placed
under his direction, and became sufficiently acquainted
with its details to detect every fault and imperfection,
and judge of the proper means to be employed for its
improvement, it is evident that the greater part of the
time he was in office was passed in a state of tutelage
and dependence, under the very subalterns who had most
prospered by the existing system, and therefore were,
.of all men, the most interested in its continuance. At no
time did the inconvenience of this almost incessant change
in the head of the Post-office department become more ap-
parent than during the negotiations with France for an in-
crease of communication between the two countries, equally
beneficial to both. The initiative of every proposition was
assumed by the French authorities, as many of our readers
must have seen by the accounts which appeared from time
to time in this paper of the nature and progress of the ne-
gotiations. Every one of the Frenoh propositions, tending
really, as experience has since shown, to the general interest
of both countries, was met with objections, delays, and dif-
ficulties, as if they embraced any point which was not clearly
and equally conducive to the benefit of the two nations on
whose behalf they were brought forward. But, thanks to
the perseverance of the French authorities, and to the
energy and zeal displayed by the Duke of Richmond, when
his Grace had begun to understand the merits of the pro-
posed arrangement, a convention was passed, in 1833, be-
tween the two Governments, binding each to an exact ful-
filment of the stipulations it contained. Four of the
French propositions, however, were left out of that con-
vention. They were decidedly objected to on this side of
the water on various grounds, all however amounting to
this—that the few individuals who had the good fortune
to have its management in their hands could not think of
relinquishing any portion of their emoluments, as they
would have to do if the remaining French propositions
were allowed to take effect. The propositions in question
went-Ist, To render optional the payment of postage on
letters going from England to France, aad vice versa, by
which the whole postage might fall either on the sender or
the receiver of a letter. 2d, To let the stamped news-
papers of each country go by post to the other, and there-
in circulate, free of any charge of postage. 3d, To abolish
the war tax, kept up to this very day, on letters destined
for either country, which tax amounts to 6d. in England,
and 12 sous (6d. also) in France, whereby the postage
on a single letter would be reduced from Is. 2d., that it
is now, to Bd., as paid previous to the late war, and so
on in proportion to the size of the letter. 4th, To esta-
blish a certain guarantee on money letters, as in the
case in France, whereby the transmission of money by
post would become more safe than it is under the present
system. It may not be unnecessary here to state, that an
arrangement, founded on stipulations exactly similar in
substance to these propositions and the convention of
1833, has long since been entered into by the French
Post-office with the Post-office authorities of the States
bordering on France, excepting only Spain and England,
and that the working of that arrangement has been found
by all parties concerned completely to answer every desira-
ble purpose. The French Post-office authorities, with a
zeal and disinterestedness which reflect the highest credit
on them, have more than once, since the passing of the
partial convention of 1833, endeavoured to bring about a
reconsideration of the four propositions left out of that
convention, with a view to their ultimate insertion therein
in the shape of supplementary articles. An indirect ne-
gotiation was at length entered into, and would most probably
have led to a satisfactory adjustment of every unsettled
point, had the Duke of Richmond, then English Post-
master-General, despatched to Paris at the proper time
an agent invested with the power of singing a preliminary
agreement, or protocol, with M. Conte, the chief director
of the French Post-office. His Grace, however, put off
the matter until his arrival at Paris, where he was going on
private busines. At the time of his visit to that city, the
two Postmasters-General soon came to an understanding
as to what remained to be done ; but the Duke of Rich-
mond conceived he was not at liberty to put his name to any
fresh articles of agreement until the English New Post-office
Bill came into operation, as some of the clauses of the old
law which that Bill was intended to supersede deprived him
of the power of enforcing immediately the articles in
question. His Grace, therefore, came back to London
with the intention of closing with M. Conte as soon as the
old law had expired ; but not long after his arrival he was,
through circumstances rather unexpected, induced to
withdraw himself from the Cabinet, so that the fate of
the four supplementary articles, because they were not
found by his successor embodied in any protocol or pre-
liminary agreement, became more than ever precarious
and doubtful. His Grace's successor being suddenly
transferred from his important avocations at Almack's to
the superintendence of a service of which he had not the
remotest idea, was of course compelled to submit to the
customary tedious process of gaining information. We
have not heard whether his Lordship has been successful
in his apprenticeship at the Post-office, nor whether he has
even condescended at all to attend to the details of matters
appertaining to so frightfully an unfashionable region as St.
Martin's-le-Grand ; but this we have heard, that his -Lord-
ship left the French Postmaster-General in utter ignorance
of his intentions regarding the negotiations which had
been interrupted by the abrupt withdrawal of the
Duke of Richmond, and chose to hold no communica-
tion with him, on other matters of business, than through
Mr. Freeling, who merely wrote in his father's name as
Secretary. So cavalier a mode of treating a gentleman,
who was in official station his Lordship's equal, in some
respects his superior, and his inferior in none, naturally
created on the other side of the water a marked distaste
towards any renewal of the negotiations. Nothing, there-
fore, has been done during the whole time that the Mar-
quis Conyngham has been at the head of the Post Office
department ; and there seems scarcely the smallest chance
of any further change for the better. It is really enough
to put one out of all patience to think that this nation, its
Parliament, and its Government, are to be all set at defi-
ance because of the want of a permanent Board to control
the management of this important office. There is little
use in bringing the subject before Parliament if the only
result is to be an unanimous acknowledgement of the ne-
cessity of subjecting the whole Post Office department to a
reform, and a reference to the lateness of the session, which
condemns the country to another year's endurance of an
avowedly defective system. We could almost have wished
that, under such circumstances, Mr. Wallace's motion had
not been brought forward at all, for what occurred in con-
sequence of it on Thursday can tend to nothing else than
to make us the laughing-stock of our continental neigh-
bours.--Tines.

LABOUR IN UPPER CANADA.—The Cornwall
Observer says that from 3,000 to 4,000 men are wanted on the
works going on in that neighbourheod.—Montreal Paper.
A small cask, filled with gold coins of the reign of
George 11., was found on pulling down an old house at High
Coniscliffe, near Darlington, a few days ago.

- -
The Editors of the Gazette de France, Quotidienne,
and France were acquitted, on Friday, but the Court of As-
sizes of the Seine, of the charge of having attacked the rights
of King Louis Philip, in an article published in those Journals
under the title of " Declaration Royaliste."
TITHES OF TURNIPS.—Though the iniquity of
taking a tithe of turnips fed off on the field for the purpose of
manuring it is apparent, as the tithe owner might just as well
demand a tenth of the dung which is carried out from the
yard,—thoughit is even miserably short-sighted in him, as the
crop of which the parson is afterwards to have his tenth must
be so much worse,—though the decision of the Lord Chief
Baron was unsupported by any previous decisions, still it re
quires so much moral courage in gentlemen brought up in
much respect for the law to attack the conduct and dicta of a
Judge, that we can but express our satisfaction at Captain
Pechell's exertions... Brighton Guariian.