The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-01 00:00:00

tions in Spain. That the cases are flagrant viola-
tions of the commonest rights of conscience cannot
be doubted. Sir ROBERT saw one of the sufferers
himself, and the ladies of his party relieved him.
Both of them are men of simple character,
wholly uninterested in politics ; indeed, it is not
pretended that they are guilty of any other
crime than that of having the Holy Scriptures,
selling them, and reading them to others. But
this, strange to say in the 19th century is an
offence, in Spain, for which men can be:sent to the
galleys for life or for the best part of life. It is
contrary to the fundamental la
one is allowed, not
ws of the land. In
that priest-ridden country no
even a foreigner, to do any open act, not even to cele-
brate a funeral service,whieh is not in accordance with
the Roman Catholic religion. Not even the the civil
servants of our acEEN resident there can be interred,
except at midnight, and then by connivance, with
any religious service. No Religion but Popery
may be professed by any one in Spain. Just now
the Spanish Government is paying to the Baptist
Missionary Society £1,500; it is for the property
of missionaries whom they expelled from the
Island of Fernandez Po, which the missionaries
were colonizing with converted negroes. It was
not known to belong to Spain—but it
does, and one day a ship of war came and and com-
pelled them all to quit and go to the mainland.
The reason assigned was that her MAJESTY would
allow no religion to be professed in any part of her
dominions but Popery. At that time the mis-
sionaries and their converts were the chief part of
the population !
What her Majesty the QUEEN can do with such
a Government it is not easy to imagine. Like the
greater part of civilised Europe Spain was kept in
the bonds of Papal superstition by violent expul-
sion of the Reformation—as in Italy, in Austria,
in Bohemia, in France, and elsewhere, the Bible
and Protestantism were suppressed, and the priests
upheld by ruthless bloodshed—but for this, all the
fairest part of Europe would have been Protestant
now. The rulers of these countries, who have
always found Popery the most apt instru-
ment of despotism, well know these, indeed,
notorious facts. ISABELLA understands that the

light of the Gospel was put out by the Inquisition
and horrid penal measures. She knows that to
relax these measures, would be to enable tha Scrip-
tures to confront the POPE, with the certain result
of large and speedy secessions from the faith which
she finds it so convenient to uphold. The Spanish
Government is consistent. If men become religiously
free, they will soon become civilly free. Freedom
of thought, and freedom to propagate thought on
the two great topics of politics and religion, have
always gone together. One never lasts long
without the other following. And though MATA-
MOROS and ALHAMA, pious simple-minded men,
dream of nothing but teaching the peasants the
way of spiritual salvation out of the Bible, as
sway as tLey do so, their converts having

learned to think for themselves in the most solemn
of human matters, will begin to think themselves
competent freely to discuss political matters also.
We can but wish, in the name of humanity, suc-
cess to the efforts of Sir R. PEEL. We doubt, how-
ever, whether he will make much way against the
instincts of a Bourbon QUEEN and a Spanish Go-
vernment. Moreover he will do well to look at
home. In Spain he finds the clergy controlling
the minds of the people; both together controlling
the willing Government, but the clergy at the bot-
tom of all. Here, in England, he beholds a similar
sight. The clergy here cannot indeed go the
lengths of Spanish priests, but they do go all the
lengths they can. They refuse to bury them-
selves a Nonconformist child, and will not let
the Nonconformists do it. And if they can-
not now enforce the sacrament on all who take
office, they refuse permission to do so, except under
a declaration intentionally degrading to Dissenters.
They oppose burial bills, and Church-rate
abolition, as intensely as the least inroad
on clerical tyranny and domination is opposed in
Spain. Indeed, considering that our clergy live in
a land with a representative Government, a land
of free discussion and of a free press, our clergy are
for their advantages, as intolerantly minded, as a
body, as those of Spain. And the worst is, they
control not only the Lords, but even the Commons
of England.

A meeting of a spmewhat remarkable character
took place at Boston on Monday—the proceedings
at which meeting will be found reported at unusual
length in another part of our impression of this
evening. It will be perceived at once that it was
an assembly of Boston Workmen, who were thus
collected together at what even the least fastidious
people amongst us are: in the habit of calling
a "soiree," after the manner of those gorgeous
Footmen at Bath, who under cover of that genteel
name regaled SAM WELLER in °the greengrocer's
back parlour upon a repast of Boiled Leg of Mutton
and Trimmings. The convivial gathering of Mon-
day evening last in the Exchange Hall at Boston,
in Lincolnshire, were, however, far more en regle
than this in the nature and character of their
festivities. Their "soiree" consisting, first of
all, of an agreeable refection of Tea—Tea taxed
to the tune of is. ',513. per lb. upon an
annual consumption in the United Kingdom of
77,000,000 lbs. And the amusements of the even-
ing, or, to preserve its distinctive title, of the
"soiree," trailing off afterwards—into a happy
blending of several of the more humanising of the
Fine Arts, music, oratory, and poetry intermingling
harmoniously, with an effect quite as delightful
in its way, no doubt, as even that discur-
sive intellectual conversation alluded to in
the Vicar of TY okefield as one ranging
" from grave to gay, from lively to severe,"
running through an immense variety of subjects,
inclurling, among others, SIIAKSPERE and the
Musical Glasses. The object of this pleasant
meeting of Monday last at Boston, may be stated
at once as having had in view the furtherance of the
interests generally of the local Working Men's
College. The Principal of that College, the Mayor
of Boston, the two representatives of that great con-
stituency, and a goodly number of the leading inhabi-
tants of the place lending the aid of their countenance
to the entertainment. Altogether, judging from
the report already referred to as given elsewhere,
we ,should certainly conceive that the proceedings,
though occassionallyinhfoarvme ableeennoupgai rititcoulaarmetro-
politan reader, mast
de-
lightful and exhiliarating, iu their way. It sounds
strangely to the ears of a Londoner, for example,
When is informed that after tea came not
of course the ‘at Breach of Prorrise Trial ofrn-o, of the proverb,
but—the leadh clergyman of Sur-
fleet, the Rev,
of the Trial scene from
Pickwick, the GPARR
Bardell v. Pickwick. had
After the laughter
subsided at the close of
the Rev. E
declamation, then, but not till
thin, the business of
B.
PARRY'S Comic
the evening appears in earnest t ,g:e byu a gy
t ,
to have commenced.
That being tho furtherance (as we have said)
Boston Working of the
Men's College
and thereception
of one of the most famous of the young
eeorki
ng
men of the western hemisphere, Mr. G. F. TeeeN
to wit, the inventor of th.e Street Railways, owe,'
ceusin, We should presume:, of Jr. G. 0. A. HEAD,