The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1844.

The proceedings which took place at Edinburgh on
Wednesday will be read with deep interest by every
British subject. After a lapse of half a century
justice has been done to the memory of MUIR, and
PALMER, and SKIRTING, and the other brave re-
formers, who dared to raise their voices against cor-
ruption and oppression—who risked and lost every-
thing dear in life for their country's cause, who suf-
fered and died, with one exception, like felons—men
who advocated principles which were carried into
effect in 1832 by the acclamation of the United Em-
pire. It is melancholy to look back on such a scene,
to reflect on the savage despotism, and the brow-
beating of the Scotch bench, the servile imitation of
the jury, the atrocious sentence passed on prisoners
who are justly entitled to the rank of martyrs in a
great and good cause, and at the same time remem-
ber that these " felons " paved the way to reform,
and only advocated priciples which, forty years after-
wards,
,were sanctioned by Kin, Lords and Com-
mons. The scene exhibits a heart-rending picture
of human nature. They were all men of irreproach-
able
character ; they were actuated bthe purest
feelings of patriotism ; they excited no !edition they
merely proclaimed the political doctrines of the' pre-
sent age ; but they came before their time ' • they
were in advance of the spirit of the age, and they
were hunted to death like the vile monsters that dis-
graced the French Revolution. Well may unsettled
minds look with doubt on the dispensations of Pro-
vidence when they find such merit subjected to such
fearful inflictions, and the only redress is a public
dinner and a monument, forty. five years after most
of them had expired in miserable exile, and among
the most degraded and wicked of the human race.
It is some consolation, however, to know that justice has
at last been done to their memory; that an old reformer,
who struggled with them in the noble cause of li-
berty, Sir JAMES GIBSON CRAIG, survived to preside
over the meeting ; and that the son of one of these
martyrs of the people's rights was present to repre-
sent the feelings and the spirit of his murdered pa-
rent. But, after all, it is a poor consolation. Scot-
land can never wipe out the stain by public MOBlL-
manta, or banquets, or by universal expressions of

such is ablaost invariably the fact, we saw in the ser-
vile insuitection under the leadership of FROST and
other Chartist agitators; and, still more recently, in
the extensive outbreak in the manufacturing districts,
which at one time threatened to involve the whole
north of England in anarchy. The strikes of work-

men, too, which are so frequently occurring in the
colliery and mining districts, where education is no-

toriously at a lower ebb than elsewhere, may be all
traced to the same source—the besotted ignorance of
those who take part in them, and who, as a necessary
consequence, adopt the very means which are the

most certain to increase their distress. Surely, with
these facts staring them in the face, Ministers will be
greatly to blame if they hesitate any longer to put
their shoulder to the wheel, and grapple with the
momentous question of education, in a prompt—con-
ciliatory—comprehensive and energetic spirit !

Madrid journals of the 16th have been received. In
one of them we find a letter from Algesiras confirm-
ing the intelligence from Marshal BUGEAUD, conveyed
by the French telegraph. "A report is current," the
writer states, "that the bombardment of Tangiers
was decided by the arrival of a telegraphic dispatch
for Marshal BUGEAUD, in which the Prince de JOIN-
viLLE was informed that the Marshal's troops had
had another engagement with 20,000 Moors un-
der ADD-EL-KADER. It is added that the Marshal
has been wounded in that action. Time will tell what
truth there is in these reports ; but, whatever the cause
may have been of the bombardment of Tangiers, it is
certain that the fortifications of the place have been
destroyed."

Accounts from Barcelona of the 17th announced
that the QUEEN reached Valencia on the 15th.
On the Madrid Bourse the Three per Cents. were
quoted at 27i at 60 days.

Private letters from Paris mention that there is
every probability of the Otaheite affair being settled
amicably. It is said that Captain BRUAT, disapprov-
ing of the arrest and expulsion of Mr. PRITCXIARD,
had reprimanded M. D'AUBIGNY, and suspended him
till further orders from his Government. We shall
rejoice to find this statement confirmed; but as no
dates are given, nor any mention made of later arri-
vals from the Pacific, it must be regarded as a mere
report, though one which is extremely probable.
Captain BRUAT was selected by the French Cabinet
as a prudent and skilful man to succeed Admiral Du-
PETIT THOUARS, and it is not at all unlikely that he
at once disowned an act involving such heavy respon-
sibilities.

The following telegraphic dispatch was received
by the Government on the 22d instant :—" The last
accounts from Marshal BUGEAUD are of the 9th. At
that date the Marshal still occupied the camp of Lella
Magrina. The negotiations with the Moorish camp
had yielded no result. The Marshal's army had been
abundantly supplied by our steamers. The squadron
of the Prince de JOINVILLE was still on the 9th in the
waters of Tangiers."
A later dispatch, which will be found under the
proper head, brings 'intelligence from Marshal Bu.
GEAUD, of the 14th, and announces that he had gained
a great victory over 20,000 Moorish cavalry. The
journals are still almost exclusively occupied with the
affairs of Morocco ; and we regret to find that owing
to some indiscreet articles in the London newspapers,
the tone of even the Ministerial press is somewhat al-
tered. The Globe thus alludes to these articles:—

" Some days ago the Presse said that the journals
would fill up the forced silence of the Chambers on both
sides of the Channel, and that their mission became the
more important in proportion to the increased gravity of
circumstances. Yes ! the mission of the periodical press
would indeed become great and high if it would devote
itself to enlighten men's minis instead of disturbing
them. But it had rendered itself little because it has
undertaken a miserable task—a task of rancorous and
narrow recrimination. No—the press cannot supply the
forced silence of the Chambers, because the Chambers
are the soul, the intelligence, the justice, and the inte-
rests of
i a nation, and the press in general is but its igno-
rance, its passion, and often its raging even to delirium.
We apply this to the journals of England as well as of
France. On both sides the journals are spirits of dark-
ness, hatred, and barbarism. On neither side do they
stand forth as the sentinels of justice, peace, and civilisa-
tion.
The harsh task which wo had imposed upon our-
selves of making known. the French press to French
readers has been too faithfully accomplished to leave

regret. It must for ever remain a stigma on the country
that, while patriots, struggling for her rights, were
sacrificed almost by common consent, English juries
stood up nobly for their fellow-subjects, saved TOoKE,
HARDY, and their colleagues from a similar fate, and
set all the machinations of a strong and unscrupulous
Government at defiance. We admit there were ex-
ceptions. Some of the leaders of the Whig party in
Scotland, and, among the rest, the ERSKINES, distin-
guished themselves in the cause of liberty ; but their
numbers were small, and the wild fury of the nation
overpowered every generous and patriotic sentiment.
Most of them are gone to their rest. Sir JAMES
Ginsox CRAIG is almost the only survivor. He is
now in his eightieth year. He long kept the whole
herd of Tories at bay ; and it is gratifying to find
that his speech on this occasion exhibits all the fresh-
ness and vigour of youth. Right principles, in the
end, prevail ; but the best and the bravest are generally
sacrificed before the great work is accomplished.

While Government are busily engaged during the
recess—as they have led us to suppose they will be—
preparing a scheme of education for the Irish, we trust
chat they will not omit to take into their considera-
tion the glaring deficiencies in this respect of the
lower classes of the English, both in the manufac-
turing and in the agricultural districts. That they
failed last year in their proposed plan of instruction
is no reason why they should not persevere, especially
as their failure will have the effect of acting as a useful
warning, by showing them wherein their plan was
defective, and furnishing them with hints and sug-
gestions for amending it. The education of the
masses is not one of those questions that can afford to
wait the leisure of Parliament and the convenience
of Ministers. It is pressing—imperative—and the
longer it is delayed, and the more it is trifled with,
the greater will be the difficulty of bringing it to a
satisfactory adjustment. At least one-half of the
agrarian outrages that are of such continual occur-
rence in the south and west of Ireland, may be traced
to the deplorable ignorance of the peasantry; and
who can doubt that the midnight vagaries of Swing
have the same origin ? By accounts that appeared a
short while since in The Sun, it seems that the ma-
jority of those recently convicted of incendiarism
had received scarcely any education at all ; while of
twenty who were convicted of various offences at the
quarter sessions in one of the Wilts districts, upwards
of fifteen could neither read nor write ! What a com-
ment is this on the supineness and want of foresight of
Government, which legislates with restless officious-
ness for a variety of petty, partial grievances, while it
leaves the great grievance of all nearly, if not wholly,
unredressed! We hear much in Parliament of the
commercial difficulties of the people, who are some-
times patted on the back for their forbearance, and at
ither times taunted with their sullen Chartist heresies;
but seldom is their benighted ignorance alluded to in
a spirit worthy of the occasion, or any indication
manifested of the earnest wish on the part of Parlia-
ment, boldly to grapple with the subject. Whigs and
Tories seem equally to shrink from the task, as though
it were surrounded with difficulties beyond their
power to overcome. We are not aware that any edu-
cational measures on a comprehensive scale were pro-
jected during the ten years of Whig supremacy; and
sure we are that our present Tory rulers—not-
withstanding that year by year the evil has been ac-
quiring fresh strength—have as yet turned their
attention but slightly and indolently to the great busi-
ness of education. Well, the evil, we trust, is now
about to be remedied ; and for the best of all possible
reasons—namely, that it can no longer be staved off
with impunity. It is good that the people should be
provided with the means of subsistence; that the
burdens which press so heavily on them should be
lightened; that ample work should be found for
them, by liberating trade and commerce from the
fetters in which they are at present bound ;—all this,
we say, is good, and worthy the most serious atten-
tion of the Legislature; but better still is it that the
people should be rationally instructed, for by these
means —and these only—the ground-work is laid for
their advancement in life; principles of common-
sense, justice, and morality are instilled into them,
which in due course will have all the force of a second
nature ; and the best of all guarantees is given for
real, lasting, national tranquillity. The energies of
an uneducated people are never to be relied on, for in
seasons of distress and difficulty, they are far more
likely to take a wrong than a right direction. Tha