The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-15 00:00:00

bitilinA gitlt

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 15, 1850.

The Great Seal is no longer in commission. The
vacancies occasioned by the resignation of Lord COT-.
TENHAM have been filled up, and for this year at least
there is no prospect of the separation of the political
and judicial functions of the Lord High Chancellor of
England. We confess that this unexpected and un-
necessary delay in one of the most important legal
reforms that could be brought forward has surprised
and grieved us. It is true that the greater portion of
the session has elapsed, and that the middle
of July is rather late to bring forward
any measure deserving of serious consideration, but
a considerable period has already rial,sed since Lord
COTT/INITAM retired from the active (lades of his high
position, and a judicious arrangermnt might easily
have been matured in the interval. Indeed the Pre-
mier distinctly promised that a full explanation
would before this have been rendered of the Minis-
terial intentions respecting the highest judicial office
in the realm.

Although we fully recognize the general objections
to keeping the Great Seal in commission, and taking
other judges from their ordinary duties, in order to
discharge the functions of a Lord Chancellor, we
must acknowledge our full participation in the regret
expressed by Lord BROUGHAM, on Friday, at the
termination of that commission. Every arrange-
ment consequent upon its formation had been entered
into. A distinguished Queen's Counsel had taken the
place of B.iron ROLFB, who had been excused from going
the circuit, in consequence of the new labours imposed
on him—labours for the competent and satisfactory
performance whereof that Learned Judge is so emi-
nently qualified. In consequence of that arrange-
men!, there could have been no urgent want of a Lord
Chancellor, at all events until November, and surely,
the interests of the suitors could not have been en-
dangered in the hands of such men to Lord LAtiG"

DALE and Baron ROLFE, even though the continued
indisposition of Sir LANCELOT SHADWELL should
deprive his coadjutors of his valuable assistance
for the remainder of the vacation. There
was, therefore, no necessity whatever for a
decision so hasty as that which astonished
the public last week by the appointment of the
late Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir
THOMAS WlLDE—perhaps we should now rather term
him Baron ELTRAM—to the Lord Chancellorship of
England, and the other changes consequent upon that
appointment. _ _ _

We should not feel greatly disposed to quarrel with
the promotion of that eminent Judge, although he
had been a common-law practitioner during his
distinguished career at the bar, and bad but
little, if any, experience of the practice of courts
of equity, and could not, therefore, be well acquainted
with the nature of the reforms so urgently required
in that department, seeing that the arrangement is
of a mere temporary character, and that the learned
gentleman has accepted the office subject to any alte-
rations that may hereafter be decided on. But, un-
fortunately, the entire transaction looks badly. It
has all the appearance of a rank job—a matter for
which the Whig Administration are supposed to
entertain a decided penchant, and also because
the filling up of the various offices interposes new
difficulties in the way of the anticipated reforms tha t
were so earnestly desired, as well by "the profession"
as by the public generally. It is impossible not to
perceive that the vacancy in the Chief Justiceship of
the Common Pleas constituted an important portion of
the arrangement, and formed no trivial part of theain-
ducement which led to the selection of Sir T. WILDE.
If the choice had fallen on Sir ROBERT MOUNSEY
ROLFE, a puisne barony only would have been
vacated, which Sir Jour; JERVIS might not have been
satisfied to accept. The Learned Gentlemen yearned
for the additional dignity and additional emolumert
that could be conferred by a chiefdom in place of a
subordinate judicial situation in one of the superior
courts. None of the chief Judges had been equity
[ practitioners, but that little difficulty could be
got over, and the interests of the community
sacrificed in order to gratify the legitimate ambition
of so steadfast an adherent, that a gentleman who had
so long been fortunate enough to retain a seat in the
Commons House of Parliament might be Chief Jus-
tice rather than Baron JERVIS. An opinion might
undoubtedly be entertained that patronage of such a
character should be exercised rather for public
than private advantage, but " the Liberal Go-
vernment" were far above such vulgar prejudices,
and " nobly dared" for the elevation of their
devoted follower, to the great admiration of expectant
place-hunters, but the bitter disappointment of the
people. Whatever might have been the causes that
led thereto, Sir Joliet JERVIS i 3 now Lerd Chief
Justice of the Court of her Majesty the QUEEN, of
her Common Pleas, and the worthy and independent
electors of the ancient city of Chester will be bound
to provide themselves with a discreet burgess to act
as their representative.
Of other appointments consteuent upon the change
we are happy to be enabled to speak in terms of ua-
crialified approbation. Sir JOHN ROMILLY has
well deserved the high distinction he has received.
That amiable and learned gentleman has shown
himself a worthy successor of his illustrious father,
whose name has been beloved and honoured by the
British nation. He entered boldly on the path of
legal reform, and traversed it with no tardy or linger-
ing footsteps. The technical and formal impedi-
ments that discouraged men of inferior minds
were speedily surmounted, and, although young in
years, he has already attained a reputation second to
none of his distinguished predecessors; his well-
merited elevation, as well as that of his talented and
liberal successor, Mr. A. COCKBURN, will be received
with cordial approbation throughout the country. We
rejoice, indeed, that the brilliant display which the
latter gentleman recently made on the question of cur
foreign policy, as well as his undeviating and consis-
tent liberality on all occasions, since he obtained a
seat in the Legislature, has been so promptly re-
warded. He will make a fitting associate for Sir
JOHN ROMILLY, an able coadjutor in devising and
bringing into operation the legal rcfernas which are
still so urgently required by the country.

In another part of to-day's impression will be found
a communication from an eminent Irish divine, whose
name is never mentioned without reverence in his
own country. It is indeed refreshing to find a vene-
rable pastor possessed of that capacious intellect, en-
lightened philanthropy, and enlarged Christianity,
which are the acknowledged attributes of Dr.
TIGHE GREGORY, lifting his pious voice in behalf of
civil and religious liberty, and in marked condemna-
tion of that narrow and perverse spirit of bigotry
which would exclude a loyal and industrious portion
of our fellow-citizens from a free participation in poli-
tical privileges under the allegation, at once ludicrous
and disgusting, that their admission into the Legisla-
ture would unehristianize the British Constitution.
We are not surprised that the " National Club"—
whatever be the composition or the locality of that
Boeotian band—should take advantage of the tempo-
rary success which attended Lord ASHLEY'S most mis-
chievous motion as an incitement to hound on the mo-
dern Pharisees in their gloomy crusade against the
merciful influence of Christian charity. "My yoke is
easy, and my burden is light," is a text which the
fanatics of the present movement would gladly
expunge from the behests of the Divine Founder of
our faith—the pure incarnation of the Charity of
GOD. How often were the accents of reproof di-
rected by the Blessed Reformer of the ceremonial
code against the narrow-minded and formally over-
righteous, those " tigers of morality" who, prototypes
of our own Puritanical progenitors, would have
executed a merciless doom upon the "erring sister's
shame," upon which HE, the judge of all the earth,
shed the balm of pardon and peace, and who, emu-
lated by our Puritanical contemporaries, were out-
raged in their distorted notions of religion by the
works of beneficence and of benefit performed on the
sacred day by That who declared that " the Sabbath
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath
But if the spirit of mercy and brotherhood
which pervades the inspired pages of the New
Testament be distasteful to the rigidly righteous—
if they look upon the distinct and repeated precepts of
him "who spake as man never spake" but as the im-
politic effusions of an amiable weakness—how is it
that they, more manifestly inclined to draw monition
from the terrors of the Old Covenant than from the
mercies of the New, are not led to regard with a more
generous feeling the once specially favoured "people
of Heaven ?"

We might, were this a fitting place, multiply texts
of a similar spirit to those which our reverend cor-
respondent bas adduced from the prophets of old,
who were the immediate organs of the Divine voice
ttohaatll
,t‘iamervesicane dwahllienhati. pons.
erfße
cut t letfre
etdhoenicr
reconcileonent s o f
these matters to their consciences as they may. Be
1 it for us to deplore that sad self-blinding of the in-
tellect, that stiff-necked acerbiatyrowa ohifch.on, d
would rule
iron, i
n England
thean
e a
consciencess e
time,
to
r e
o fjrejoice
othersc with
that
there is yet
an amount of sterling Christian sentiment and com-
monnadt
h
sense which will prevent these gloomy zealots
from rivetting their intolerant dogmas on thenezcelksootsf
their fellow-subjects, and scandalizing the gentle
creed of "good will towards men."
The Jewish Disabilities Bill has been specially re-
served by the Premier from the sacrifice which be
has found it expedient to make of several measures
towards the close of the session. In a praiseworthy
spirit he has determined that the year shall not be
suffered to pass over without a struggle, and we
trust a successful one, to have this important act of
enfranchisement flatted by the upper branch of the
Legislature. The House of Lords must labour under
the influence of a spirit of most impolitic perversity if
they persist in offering an obstruction to a rational and
popular enactment, which must in any event at no dis-
tant day become part and parcel of the law of the land.
The day for aristocratic obstinacy has passed away,
and we should deeply regret to see the Hereditary
Chamber pursuing a course of infatuation calculated
to bring odium on its influence in the Councils of the
State, and to place it in such odicus contrast with the
Representative House as must ultimately tend to
sap the foundation of its legitimate weight, and
bring into question among the masses the utility or
expediency of its existence. Its members should re-
flect that the question of the admission of Jews into

Parliament is one which mainly, we might almost say
exclusively, affects the constitution of the House of
Commons, and that to oppose the reiterated expres-
sion of the conviction of that body is in reality exer-
cising an impertinent interposition. It is the House
cf Commons that would be affected by the proposed
measure, and if it be acceptable in that quarter it is
surely no proper, not to say prudent, proceeding, on
the part of the self-representatives on the scarlet
benches, to presume upon a few immaterial triumphs
which they have recently contrived to obtain over
her MAJESTY'S present advisers, and to signalise the
termination of the Parliamentary session of 1850 by
a narrow sighted refusal to carry into operation an
extension of political justice, the necessary conse-
quence of the progress of social ideas, and in accord-
ance with the liberal spirit of the British Consti-
stitution and the brotherly influence of the Chris-
tian faith.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have receivcA the Paris journals of Saturday
and yesterday.

The Ministers of the PE,ESIDENT are wonderful
men ; they have accomplished that which at first sight
appeared impossiiple, they have managed to unite,
the Debats and the Constitutionnel in a league with
the Credit, the National, and the Slide against them-
selves and the majority, whilst at the same time they
have gained the support of M. PIERRE LEROUX whose
vanity is greatly flattered by Ole new provision which
compels all jeurnali3ts to sign the articles which they
write. The law of the press is a declaration of war
on the part of the Assembly against literature and
literary men. It is, as the Debats expresses it, a law
of hatred, of the hatred of crass ignorance against
learning and its professors. That it is not
solely directed to the destruction of political writers
is evident from the clause which was proposed by M.
BAROCHE on Saturday, which went to impose a
stamp duty on all periodicals whatsoever, and on all
books issued in numbers, a clause the passing of
which he declar td the Ministry considered to be of
vital importance.. Notwithstanding, however, the
clause was rejecte d by a majority of 112; the numbers
being for the clause, 227, against it, 339 ;
majority againsit the Ministry, 112. This is
the severest c'neck they have ever received.
In th 3 course of tthe discussion M. DE L .i.ROCHFJAC.•
QUELIN declared that his friends had been induced
to vote for the electoral law by false representation 3;
that they had no idea it would have been a measure
of such wholesal e disfranchisement ; that they re-
pented them of th a vote, and he gave notice that he
should move its repeal. The fact is, the Legitimatists
have discovered that the Ocleanists have tricked them,
that it id the intention of the latter to j oin the Bona-
parties, in ord sr to prolong the term of the
power of the PRESIDENT, and perhaps to declere
him emperor for life, with the Count DE FARIs for his
successor, and they have accordingly seceded from the
majority. A letter which appears in the SUcle, tied
which is addressel to the Emperor SOULOUQUE by
M. Louis DESZCOrERS, would seem to show that the
Legitimatists are not far wrong in their ideas con-
cerning the advent of an Imperial regime. It says—

" Prince, please answer me frankly ere tollowing ques-
tion—ls it not for :you thqt Dr. Daras, the upholsterer, of
the quay Conti. is executing, from designs of M. Ilugues
Riwat, by M. Fourdinois, maker of sculptured furniture,
rue Amelot, 46, tan complete furniture of a throne-room,
pith an imperial chair, baldaquin, talacurets, gilded
fau'euils, birds, crowns, &c.? I fancy so, notsithatand•
ing that the arms and ciphers are not exactly yours."
The PRESIDENT has gone to Coenpeigne.
The differences between Generals D'il AUTPOUL and
CHANG ARNIER still continue, and are now carried to
an extent which !must be ere long subversive of the
discipline of the tinny. The Nationa-! says—
" A few days since the Minister of War wrote direct
to one of the colonels of the garrison of Paris, ordering
him to send him ,dome information relative to an officer.
Tile colonel replied direct to the Minister. General
Changarnier was informed of the fact, and punished the
colonel with four days' arrest 'for having corresponded di-
rectly with the Minister of War,' and he made known
this punishment to the generals and the commanding
cfficers of regimerts by an order of the day. The colo-
nel doubtless expected, or at least he had a right to ex-
pect, that this punishment would be taken off by the
Minister whose n.cler he had executed, and General
Changarnier might fear being punished in his turn or
reprimanded; but General d'Hautpoul thought proper
to allow the former to take place, and did not breathe a
word of the latter. It is thus that imbordinAtion and
discipline is understood at the War-office and at the
Tuileries. Nothirig can be more soldier-like, nothing
more edifying, and nothing more assuring, also, for the
generals and color els, who are incessantly subjected to
this cross-fire betvreen the orders and the pretensions of
Generals d'Hautpoul and Changarnier."
The committee on General GRAMMONT'S proposi-
tion for the transferring the seat of government out
of Paris has recommended, by a majority of twelve to
three, that it should be taken into consideration by a
special commisaio 1.
General FAnvi ER'S proposition for transferring
ABD-EL-KA.DER to Alexandria or St. Jean d'Acre
has been rejected by the Committee of Parliamentary
Initiative.

A proposition for the prorogation of the National
Assembly from the 11th of August to the 11th of
October has been laid on the table.
The second balloon ascent of M. PorrEvAN on
horeback took place on Sunday from the Champ
Elys6?. Thousands of spectators were present. 4L;-
The Five per Cents. were done in the Passage de
Opera at 951. 80e.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE. JULY 13.
Datch Rhenish, 1741—Rouen and Havre, 914.

ACCOUCHEMENT OF THE QUEEN

OF SPAIN.

The Minister of Spain in Paris received the follow-
ing telegraphic dispatch from Madrid yesterday
evening :

" Behobia, July 13, ten o'clock, P.M.
" THE MINISTER 01? THE INTERIOR TO THE MINISTER

OF SPAIN.

"Madrid, July 13, balf-past one, P.M.
" The Queen of Spain was delivered yesterday (Fri-
day) at four o'clock, P.M., of a Prince, who died a few
minutes after. The health of the Queen is good.
Transmit this news to our Ambassador in London as
well as to the Northern Courts."