The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-13 00:00:00

and the demand will naturally and pro-
perly regulate the supply. It may possibly be
desirable to require adequate securities for his
future good behaviour—a far more efficient gua-
raLtee, by the way, than the magisterial vagaries
now afford. That, however, is a moot po'itir
on which we do not desire as yet to enunciate a
decided opinion. Where there has been miscon-
duct, either on the part of landlord or customer,
let there be adequate punishment, but do not
suffer a dozen well-disposed men to be subjected
to annoyance and inconvenience in order that a
comparatively trivial obstacle may be thrown in
the way of an habitual offender. Jowl GOODMAN
should not always be made the victim of BILL
SYKES. Punish intoxication severely if you will,
but do not prevent a dozen men from obtaining
moderate and wholesome refreshment in the vain
hope that the habitual drunkard will abstain frown
yielding to the degrading vice. Stringently pun-
ish adulteration, or the harbouring of notorious
wrong-doers, but do not prevent the public from
obtaining proper accommodation, or respectable
men from engaging in the business because it is
capable of being abused. It is well, if practicable,
to eradicate the tares, but it would be ridiculous
to cut down with them the entire crop of corn,
and to involve the good and the bad in one com-
mon destruction.

Lord PALMERSTON is the MOSES of the Liberals.
He keeps them in the wilderness, but points them
to the Land of Promise. Where is our Reform
Bill, they ask, which we murmured for at the
hustings ? I promise you one, next session,
which will content you all, he replies. What
about Church Rates, says Mr. TRELAWNEY, speak-
ing in the name of Ecclesiastical Liberalism ? I
am not without hope, says the Premier, of giving
you your portion on this side the Jordan of proro-
gation ; but I can give no definitive promise.
Next session is the real Land of Promise. Mr.
TRELAWNEY is one of the unbelieving race,—he
gives the Premier a week or two's grace, and
if he has not reached the promised land by that
time, Mr. TRELAWNEY engages to assume the rank
of Captain of the Liberal host, pro hac vice, and
will essay to lead it to victory.
This is as it should be. Lord PALMERSTON, and
in this he is not worse than most Premiers, will
move no faster than he is compelled. It may be,
indeed, political charity to compel him. If we may
be excused prolonging the figure, he has before him
a fierce set of Amalekites, E'lomites, Moabites, and
Ammonites, whom he must either intimidate or
fight. Tories and Evangelicals, rickety W!aigs
and Puseyites, will lay aside their quarrels to
fight in common for the power to tax Dissenters.
We do not believe that Lord PALMERSTON himself
would object to abolishing Church R rtes to-mor-
row ; to abolishing them out and out, with no equi-
valent provided by the nation. But Lord PAL-
MERSTON is not a dictator. He would gladly do
it if Mr. HATTER could assure him of a good
round majority ; if he could point the grumbling
Churchmen to an array against them amongst his
ordinary supporters, which no Minister could with
impunity defy. Though we therefore never ad-
vocate removing one ounce of pressure from a
Minister, for his own sake, in the present case we
incline to think the Premier would prefer what
would best furnish his apology for decision.
We have always openly enough told Church-
men, and Dissenters too, our view of the Church-
rate question. To the former we say, you
ought to blush at this time of day to oppress,
with such manifest and mean selfishness, the aboli-
tion of so unjust and irritating an impost ; to the
latter we say, your case is so strong, and your
battle-ground, both in the House and out of it, so
advantageous, that it will be through your own
inexcusable apathy if you do not gain a comphte
victory. Churchmen, of Lord Jtuvr RUSSELL'S
school, or that of the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, may
tell us that the principle of Establishments is in-
volved in the Church-rate question ; if it be, then,
we reply, so much the worse for Establishments.
Churchmen should be slow, indeed, to talk in this
style, since, as this noxious tax is cart iinly doomed,
numbers, on its abolition, will take them at their
word, and, having abolished Church-rates, will
cry—mow at the Church. Should this be the
case, it will be the fault of those who staked the
fate of the Establishment on the right of screwing
a penny or a halfpenny in the intend out of men
who, in addition, paid more than twenty times
that amount to support their own worship.
We see by the spirited meeting of what used
to be called the Anti-State Mare!, Society, at S'.
Martin's Hall, that this growing p arty is by no
means discouraged by the loss of one or two of their
leaders at the late election. It seems pretty clear
that their ecclesiastical liberalism had nothing t
do with their defeats. Had they not gut into
their heads the anti-popular crotchet of the League
on the Canton business, they would probably
have been in the house still. The Society reckons
its clear gains, we perceive, at not fewer than
thirty-six votes. If this be the case, and probably
the point will soon be tested on the SPOONER
motion, their progress will have proved to be in-
deed unexpectedly great. And greater it will yet be
if Churchmen are so mad as to clamour for a paltry
equivalent for the abolition of Church Rates out
of the national taxation, when all of us are de-
manding stern economy. Will it be endured that
the Consolidated Fund should be saddled with
200,0001. or 300,0001. -per annum to spare the
meanness of men who will not pay the casual
expenses attendant on their worship of Go]) ?
Because Dissenters will no longer be ground under
the injustice, will they irritate Dissenters, and all
the other tax-payers too, by demanding to have
their pockets saved at the general cost ? It is
barefaced avarice like this which injures the
E,tablishment far more than all the efforts of Dis-
senters. It convicts it of having taught those who
slumber under its shade such niggardly parsimony
as disgusts all but the infatuated.
We hope on this question Dissenters will be
firm. Total repeal, or nothing, ought to be their
motto. The nobler minded among Churchmen all
respond heartily to this, and will not relish any
compromise degrading to both aides, which
can, besides, but prolong the contest for a
generation to come. We see the pet nonsense of
the hour is that Dissenters should help to keep the
national buildings in repair, because they are
national property. Should such a proposition
ever be carried in the house, we would vote with
Dissenters on an amendment, " that as the wor-
shippers amongst Dissenters were proved by the
late census to exceed in number those of the
Established Churches, Dissenters, on being rated
to the repairs of parish churches, have half
of those buildings, wherever there was a chapel of
ease in any parish ; and where there was not, that
Dissenters should have the chtirch one half the
day, and Churchmen the other." Tenants who
pay no rent may surely think themselves well off
if they have but to repair their houses.

We have authority to state that the Queen will no
hold a drawing-room upon the 26th instant, upon which
,lay her Majesty's birthday will be celebrated.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent left her
residence,Ciarance Hon-e, St. James's, at half-past nine
,o'clock, yesterday morning, for Osborne.
His Royal Highness the Pzince of Wales has gone cn
s tour of the lake district. His Royal Highness, at-
tended by Mr. Gibbs, arrived at Bowness at five o'clock
•a Monday evening.