The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

rIiE.,„SUN, LONDON, SATU-RDAY

son for English institutions and English practice. 1
There is no gammon about either one or the
other of these great palladia of national indepen-
dence. It is true, that a journal is occasionally
subjected to serious annoyance in consequence of
actions that should never be instituted. But
they cannot complain of censorship, nor are they
liable to warning% leading to eventual suppres-
sion. Their opponent is but a private indi-
vidual, and the whole power of the Government
cannot be flung into the opposite scale—besides,
the verdict of a jury must be obtained before
they can be exposed to very serious injury !
Again, in elections, the suffrage is not so gene-
ral as it ought to be, nor does it exercise due pro-
tection. The electors are liable to a variety of
undue influences—to bribery, corruption, and in-
timidation in all its multifaMous phases—the
intimidation of landlord, employer, and customer,
even of the bludgeoneers, who, stick or brickbat
in hand, are ready not merely to hoot down any
opponent, but also to cudgel or stone the man
who does not exercise his franchise in favour of
their employer. But still the Government does
not dare openly to interfere. It could not degrade
a returning officer, or close a newspaper office,
because the former had not been favourable to
the Ministerial candidate, or the latter hadVritten
powerfully, though temperately, on behalf of an
oppositionist aspirant for legislative honours.
Now, in France, both these dodges have
just been resorted to. The Government of
the EMPEROR, whose throne professes to be
based on the popular will, has not only made
direct, and we regret to be obliged to
add, very unjustifiable appeals to the electors,
but has also, in total dereliction of every principle
of fair play and impartial justice, attempted to
put down with the strong hand every argument
-.hat could be used on the opposite side. Not
only is the worst species of intimidation resorted
to, that which deprives Government employees of
their situations, unless they vote in accordance
with the wishes of the Minister for the time
being. Not only is undue influence openly exer-
cised with parties not immediately dependent, but
every thing that can be said on the other side is
regarded and treated as the worst kind of sedition.
There is to be a phantom of Parliamentary autho-
rity—a quasi representative assembly, but accord-
ing to the present regime there might just as well
have been a direct nomination of members as that
which is about to take place. Not only do we
find the several Prefects putting forward mani-
festoes, in which the opposition candidates are de-
signated as " declared adversaries of the Imperial
Constitution, seeking only the suffrages to reject
them with disdain," but dismissing every employe
who manifests the slightest symptom of in-
dependence ; and summing up the important
question at issue in the following manner :

The Prefect of the Seine declares that—
" To vote for the candidates designed by the Go-
vernment is to ratify their conduct by your votes,
to approve what they have already done, to faci-
litate the execution of the projects of the EH-
PEROR. To vote, on the other hand, for the
hostile candidate is to enter a path without a goal
with men who, most of them, have really no
sympathy with the people ; who, in the exercise
of power, have already given proofs of their in
sufficiency and weakness, and who can only re-
establish their party on the misfortunes of their
country. Your choice cannot be doubtful."
But, far beyond all, they have the hardihood to
assault the Fourth Estate, through the independ-
ent Siecle. That journal has received a
third warning 1 By no means a mere brutun6
fulmen,----for the sword is now suspended over
lits head by a very slender shred, and may fill at

at any moment that the expression of its hones

and conscientious convictions, may give offence to
the Imperial Government. It is admitted by the
Decree to be "one of the most energetic and
active organs of an Opposition, the bearing of
which public opinion will appreciate ;" but it can-
not be permitted to appeal to that opinion, nor
are all the arguments of the Government organs,
of the official Moniteur, and the semi-official Con-
stitutionnel, deemed sufficient to meet the straight-
forward and convincing views of the Opposition
Journal.

There is one comfort to be derived from this
very untoward state of affairs. It is manifest
that the Government must consider •
its condition
to be very shaky, when it can resort to such pro-
eeedings—that it must be thoroughly cognisant of
the national enthusiasm in favour of an indepen-
dent Legislative Assembly. Were it otherwise it
would not adopt such unjustifiable means to carry
out its objects. It is now palpable that the inae-
pendence of the Legislative Assembly is at best
" a mockery, a delusion, and a snare," and when
the substance is wanting, it would be just as well
if the shadow were also annihilated, and that the
Government of France should profess to be what
it really is—an absolute despotism, as u nfettered
as the autocracy of the CZAR over " Holy Russia."

It is really quite delightful to think how com-
pletely the "Strong Government" was defeated
on Thursday evening in the New Parliament.
Consider the occasion of that defeat, and then an-
swer if it may not be spoken of as a matter of
very general congratulation ! Recollect that it
was a clear majority of ten gained over the Minis-
, terialists by the supporters of the motion of Sir
DESHAM NORREYS—a motion to put a stop, sum-
marily and totally, to the continuance of one of
the most preposterous instances of extravagant ex-
penditure perhaps ever yet heard of ! Literally
nothing less than the cool appropriation of thou-
sands upon thousands of the public money—for
their own private ends—by the wealthy-landed
proprietors of Scotland ! To be plain—ln the
general Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom
it has been found that a survey conducted upon a
scale of six inches to the linear Mile, or, in
other words, of no less than thirty-six square

inches to the spare mile, proved for all practical
purposes amply sufficient. No wonder 1--for, as
Sir D. NORREYS stated to the Rouse the night
before last, so minutely accurate was the delinea-

on upon this scale that any gentlemen might

at pleasure. find " his own garden walks mapped
out, and even his spring and the position of his
pump"—in the maps thus executed ! It is not
surprising, therefore, to find that considerable
portions of England, and as much as four-fifths of
Ireland, have been been surveyed upon this scale,
and not upon a scale mere extended. That this
arrangement, as it so stood, was to all intents
and purposes costly enough, even while thus
(if we can reasonably so employ the word)
restricted—any one may understand at once on
learning that the Irish survey alone necessitated a
disbursement of no less than 1,200,0001. ! Yet
actually this was not enough for the worthy Scot-
tish landowners—for the canny lairds of Cale-
donia!
A six-inch survey might suffice for
England and for Ireland it was true, but not for
the land of
cakes and of the thistle. There, posi-
tively,
,
they must have a survey not of six inches
merely but of over
twenty-five inches to the square
mile And they have actually been having a con-
siderable portion of it ! The chains and the
theodolites have been hard at work, not
only in the rich paAnre- and arable lands

of
.2cotlabd; -.'.but—incredible though it may

seam to those unacquainted with northern
impudence in these matters—in the arid wastes
and barren wilds of Caledonia. The brobdigna-
gian maps thus produced, benefitting no one at
all in the wide world save those same affluent
proprietors. And the money squandered upon
the production of those same ridiculously gigantic
maps—coming, of course, out of the national
treasury! The whole fantastic project tending
in this way to the completion of one stupendous
plan of Scotland, which as the Times laughably
but most accurately puts it—" if completed on
the same scale, would be 250 yards long by about
200 broad, which would cover the Art Treasures
building at Manchester, and if placed upright would
be about twice the height of St. Paul's Cathedral."
However, the folly of the thing was altogether
too monstrous to be any longer endured. And
so—when it was with admirable effrontery pro-
posed to tack on another little item of 36,0001.
to the estimates, for the purpose of extending this
private boon to the lairds of the rugged fast-
nesses of Ross-shire and Caithness—the whole
scheme was quashed, or rather (to call things by
their right names) was literally and indignantly
squashed by the New Parliament. The
"Strong" Cabinet—as Mr. KEELEY might say,
in the farce " Coming it just a little too Strong !"
—finding themselves in an absolute minority of ten;
and the PREMIER wisely promising, thereupon, in a
penitential mood, that he " would never do so
again r —that no further survey upon the
25-inch scale should be made henceforth in any
part of the United Kingdom.
Good—so far. The matter•is done with. But
it was—was it not ?—wonderfully significant and
characteristic ! It was characteristic of the whole
of that grand system of ours, epitomised under
one big word by Boz, as the system of Circumlo-
cution ! It was significant of that aggregated
mass of our Imperial " muddle"—a total of
blended parsimony and extravagance.
Here are we squandering huge piles of gold and
banknotes upon a Gigantic Absurdity=—and grudg-
ing at the same time the merest trifle- spent upon
public works, works illustrative in their way of the
national character, and intimately affecting to the
world at large, either the meanness or the majesty
of our Imperial reputation.
Let us have an end of this, at last, for once,
and for all. Let us have an end of useless and
expensive "jobs," like this enormous Folly of the
Scotch Survey ! And let us, while we thus
retrench rationally on the one • side—let us
we say, upon the other, give freely, give
eagerly, give affluently, out of the abundance
of the .National Wealth, for the adornment
and the general improvement of not merely the
national, but even be it said the Imperial Capital !
For the renovation of the national monuments !
For there-building of the National Gallery ! For
the further beautifying of our noble Parks—the
pleasure gardens not merely of the Londoners,
but, as such, of the whole population The Capital
of the Empire should be worthy of the Crown
and of the People !

" Spurgeonism in the Church" attracted us
lately to Exeter Hall, as it once did to the
" Original SPURGEON" at the Music Hall, in the
Surrey Gardens. Of course journalists cannot
imitate the "Sunday Saints and Monday Sinners."
We must be Sunday journalists and Monday jour-
nalists too, although we may be glad enough to
let our types and printing machine enjoy their
weekly rest. Well, we stepped across the Strand
to see how our Church friends succeeded in their
imitation of the popular young Baptist. It was all.
as it ought to be ; the cutting down of the service
to the Litany and a prayer or two, and the spirited
singing of two or three hymns, occupied little
more than half an hour, and could not have
wearied any one. The Sermon too, was good, of
the Evangelical school. The preacher's doctrinal
creed and the Srur.oEores, we should judge, dif-
fered but little, if at all. In point of style,
voice, and manner, there could be no question
that the youthful Dissenter had greatly the ad-
vantage in regard to the power of interesting au
audience of mechanics and tradesmen. Probably
his vivid fancy and earnestness have as much to
do, as his success with the multitude, in attract-
ing so many of the aristocracy also, whose names
we see reported as frequenting the ,great religious
levees in the Borough.
We were reminded, however, yesterday, of one
person we saw at Exeter Hall on the occasion re-
ferred to. Close by the preacher sat one of the
avowed promoters of " Church Spurgeonism"—
the Earl of SHAFTESBURY. We have already
justified and commended the movement. We
thought it eminently well meant. We know the
Earl to belong to the section of the Church which
rejoices in the epithet, Evangelical ; and we
thought no more of it. Yesterday, however, we
had to report the Evangelical Exeter Hall Earl
as heading a Church Rate Deputation to Lord PAL-
MERSTON ! A deputation, of course, of good
honest, Church and King, anti-Maynooth, money-
loving Tories, R. SPOONER, Esq., being na-
turally prominent among them. We could not
forget the last time we saw the Earl ; we thought
of the Exeter Hall platform ; we thought of Evan-
gelical clergymen, and Evangelical Members of
Parliament, and Bishops, and Earls ; we remem-
bered the text too, and we could not help adapt-
ing it to the Exeter Hall Earl, and exclaiming,
" Can a stiff Churchman change his skin, or a
Tory his spots ?"

The truth is that, not professing any peculiar
sanctity ourselves, we participate in the vulgar feel-
ing of looking for "something more" in those who
avow themselves professors of a v:ey spiritual con-
ception of our common faith. We also incline to
the exceedingly vulgar, practice of making plain
undeniable virtues, such as fairness, justice, gene-
rosity, and doing to others as we would they should
do unto us, our measure of the value of very
spiritual professions. Now, we have always re-
spected the Earl of SHAFTESBURY as a Ragged
School man and so forth ; but what were we to
think of a hot evangelical Church-rate Lord ?
With our worldly views of things, we have heartily
opposed Church-rates ever since Dissenters ob-
jected to them; and we have done it just because
we could not look a respectable Dissenter is the
face, and deem ourselves commonly honest or just,
not to say generous, did we not renounce, frankly
and unconditionally, the power of taxing him for
the services of our Church. We should not like
he should do the like thing to us; we could not
think it fair to make him keep up our churches and
services, and his own too ; and our notions of re-
ligion (very carnal ones, perhaps) bid us perf:.,rm
towards the Dissenter the homely virlAtes of hu-
manity and fairness.

We saw in some placards that the Earl of
SHAFTESAURY was to talc the chair at a Baptist
Missionary Meeting in the Hall, last May—.what
can those very decided Non-conformists think of
their Chairman now ? One day praising their
missionaries and recommending voluntary sub-
script'ons for them, a few days after beseeching
the Premier to keep the Church-rate saddle on
the Dissenters backs, and to boot and spur the
Churchmen to vide them ! Evangelical Church-
rate summons, Evangelical distress warrants, I

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