The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-17 00:00:00

he must succeed.. He has done well, so far as he
has gone, and if there be only the requisite agita-

tion--if the pressure from without be sufficiently
stringent, MiniEiters must yield, and a great blot
will be eradicated from the National Statute
Book.

We have recently witnessed a striking instance
of the ill effects of Ultramontanism in Belgium.
It was by mere accident that a general convulsion'
was prevented. At the last moment King
LEoroLD perceived the full extent of the danger
to which his dynasty was exposed, and adopted
the only course that could check the revolutionary
spirit. Hitherto it has succeeded, but it will
require great caution, combined .with firmness, to
render the restored tranquility permanent, and to
restrain the aggressive propensities of the parti
pretre.

We have already explained the nature of the
difficulty. It was occasioned by the attempt to
bring about sacerdotal domination by removing
all the necessary checks to the aggrandisement of
religious bodies, and the exercise of spiritual
denunciations to induce dying sinners to leave
their wealth to the Church, in order to obtain the
absolution they require, although purchased by
the ruin of their families. In every Roman Ca-
tholic country, similar checks have been found to
be indispensable, and indeed wherever the sacer-
dotal element predominates, and the nation
becomes " priest ridden," its decline and fall
may be readily foreseen. This is the case through-
out Italy, with the exception of Piedmont, in
which papal encroachments have been stedfastly
and energetically resisted. Look to the condition
of Naples, of Tuscany, of the States of the Church,
of the Lombardo-Venetian provinces, and of the
minor Duchies 1 In all these, the priests rule the
roast, and the natural result follows—the
most cruel persecutions exist, and liberty is vir-
tually extinguished, or trampled under foot. All
the wonderful resources of the country—its fer-
tile, benignant climate, and commanding situa-
tion, are insufficient to raise it from the degrada-
tion to which it has been subjected by yielding to
priestly domination and sacerdotal tyranny, which
is invariably inimical to the cause of freedom.
Again, in Spain—once a great power in the
most extensive meaning of the phrase—we have
seen the like causes producing the like results.
All is confusion. Ministerial crises are
occurring almost every month. No Government
has rested on a firm basis. It has been a Para-
dise for the Priests, but something more allied to
a place, not to be mentioned to ears polite, for the
great body of the People. We do not say that
this system is the exclusive attribute of the Ro-
man Catholic Church, but it has certainly been
more strongly developed in countries where that
is the Stata religion, and where the greatest defer-
ence is professed to the Vatican. We believe
that, if temporal power was conferred upon the
Anglican Church, it would be nearly, if not alto-
gether, as strongly prejudicial to the cause of civil
and religious liberty. It is, .as we have stated,
Sacerdotal domination, in any way, and every
form, to which we object. We earnestly hope
that the People of Belgium will maintain their
ground, and that there will be an end to the ob-
noxious propositions, against which they have so
indignantly and so energetically protested.

Dr. LETHEBYI a Report—yesterday submitted
pro forme', to the Court of rloraroon Council—
contains some rather melancholy revelations. Yet
altogether it must be regarded as really, to a con
siderable extent, encouraging. It, naturally
enough, depresses the heart of the Humanitarian,
but it does not appal it. And it is not so very
long ago when the Medical Officer of Health's
report—based upon the returns of the Inspectors
—could not have failed to do this, namely to ap-
pal the heart of the philanthropist by the fright-
ful nature of the revelations consequent upon
any such investigation. The truth is that by
this time, thanks be to GOD, the condition of the
more squalid parts of our vast and populous
capital have been, to a very considerable extent,
ameliorated. Nevertheless, it must, at the same
time, he admitted that while " much has been
done," yet " more remains to do 1" White-
friars may no longer be the place of abomination
it was of yore, when the favourite resort of the
bully-ruffians of old London was the Thieves' inv.
perium in imperio, down in the noisome lanes and
alleys of Alsatia. St. Giles's, again, may have
been, for the most part, so swept away, and altered,
and improved in its general character, so changed
and ventilated, so "opened up" to the light and air
of heaven, that its foul memory and its tainted
name alone survive to attest the fact of its once
villainous and destructive existence. But while
the hold and comprehensive measures of social and
sanitary innovations have been eirectuall; oblite-
rating some of the deadliest of all the great
plague-spots of the metropolis—there still remain
of course many villainous evils of the same kind
hidden away in the meaner " back slums" of Lon-
don imperatively requiring removal at our earliest
possible convenience.

Dr. LETHEBY'S melancholy, but still, we repeat,
encouraging, report specifies several of the loeali-
ties demanding the attention of our sanitary in-
novators more immediately. The indecorous over-
crowding of some of these places he takes particu-
lar occasion to notify and reprehend. Conspicuous
among the scenes so mentioned being Pe then-
court, Foster-street, Rose-and-Crown-court, Half-
moon-street, and Sherrott's-buildings. As to the
first-mentioned of these miserable by-ways, Dr.
LETHEBY observes that there, in Peahen-court, he
has found in one of its wretched 'tenements (No.
1') as many as nineteen human beings stowed away
in six small rooms—viz., five men, seven women,
and seven children. Observe what the Medical
Officer of Health says in continuation ! " The
house stands at the end of the court, and forms a
cross barrier, but one room deep, between Pea
hen-court and Union-court, which are in a
straight line with each other. That its re-
moval would be attended with great advan-
tage to the neighbourhood there cannot
be a doubt, for Peahen-court is a nar-
row passage standing between fourteen houses,
that aro now occupied by 46 families of 141 in•
dividuals. All the houses are but one room deep,
and generally they consist of three rooms placed
one over the other. The ventilation of the
whole court is defective, and I believe that sickness
and fever are of constant occurrence amongst its
inhabitants." Obviously, therefore, the total
removal of this obstructive and destructive tene-
ment is a change for the better, suggested by
every kind of prudential consideration.
It is not, however, by merely proposing to de-
stroy that Dr. LETUEBY sketches out his scheme of
Sanitary Improvements for the acceptance or
rejection of the municipality. That, in truth,
would be a very clumsy, barbarous, and ill-con-
sidered mode of procedure. It is sometimes, of
course,, imperatively demanded by circumstances.
But it is by no means the rule. It ought at all
.
times to be regarded as for the most part excep-
tional. So thinks Dr. LETHEBY—for this is the
only hint of his, in the present report, at anything
like absOlute -aektikuctibn. He recomniende. clean-