The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-26 00:00:00

THE SUN,

discussion on previous oct sions and under differen‘
circumstances. What -.llr. Hums demanded wa,
the emulation of the c( vnduct of the Dean an(

Chapter at Westmir ,ster Abbey by the
ecclesiastical authorities of St. Paul's Cathe-
dral. Thanks to the fot m.,r, a considerable por-
tion of the great national edifice near the Houses of
Parliament has been ram ntly thrown open to thf
multitude, no charge for admission being required
excepting to one or tart o of the minor chapels ;
whereas the vergers and other attendants at Sr.
Paul's Cathedral are still permitted to deny access to
its interior unless twopetvoce be given in one quarter,
and sixpence in another, and a shilling in another,
the scale of these fees ascending in proportion ap
parently to the altitude i►ttained by the visitor. Any
thing more disgraceful than this system of transforming
a noble religious structure into a sort of gigantic•
peepshow can scarely be imagined. The indecency
of the proceeding has long been recognized and de.
plored. Efforts have repeatedly been made to render
its continuance impracticable. Unfortunately those
endeavours have hitherto been unsuccessful. The
subordinate officials at the metropolitan cathedral have
clung with unconquerable tenacity to a plan so ma-
terially tending to their emolument ; and their su
periors have refrained, from a feeling of false
economy, from compensating them by some reasonable
arrangement for any loss that might accrue from the
discontinuance of these perquisites. As Mr. Hume
last evening reminded the House, an energetic effort
was made to dissipate the evils of the existing system
immediately after the accession to the throne of th€
present SOVEREIGN. An address to her MAJESTY,
signed by 600 gentlemen connected with art, science,
and literatur9, besought the interference of the Crown
for the purpose of rendering the public edifices of
the metropolis more accessible to the multitude.
Gradually, it is true, the prayer of that address
been answered in one or two directions, the people
being enabled to visit such places as the British
Museum without any charge being demanded at the
doors for their admission. How far they have responded
to this confidence in them by the Government hal.
been long recognized in the decorum of their beha-
viour. Nor can we doubt that the same sobriety of
bearing which has been displayed in purely secular
establishments like these, would be displayed by
them even to a greater degree in fanes consecrated to
religion, and dedicated to the service of the GOD of
Christianity. _ _

The absurdity of the present restriction imposed
upon the population becomes more conspicuous than
ever when we bear in mind the fact, that many of
these public structures have been built at the
public expease, and that the monuments, for
a glance at which the people are required
to pay hard cash, were erected many of them from
funds raised in the form of national subscriptions.

So notorious *are these and other similar grievances,
that the exclamation with which LAURENCE STERNE
adorns the first page of his "Sentimental Journey"
has passed almost into a proverb—" They manage
these things better in France !" In that country the
churches are open at all reasonable hours to the
curious as well as to worshippers. The foreigner as
well as the French citizen can wander without ob-
struction among the tombs and cenotaphs of
the illustrious men who have lived under the
monarchy, the empire, and the republic, without
being pestered for a few sous by some mendicant
servant of a paupef establishment. Not so with our-
selves. We must pay the showmen who stand with
their money-boxes in the vestibules of our cathedrals,
before we can be allowed to make a pilgrimage to the
grave of a NALsoN, or the monument of a %Vitas, or
the statue of an ABERCROMBIE. Those who have
scrutinized the national peculiarities of England have
remarked that we can never achieve any

triumph, warlike or pacific, social or po-
litical, but we must needs celebrate the cir-
cumstance by a dinner. Those who have re-
marked as much might with equal truth have ob-
served that we can never build a church or erect a
mausoleum but we must invariably send round a hat
to spectators, like some itinerant juggler or peripate-
tic musician. The Christian temples, after a lapse of

more than eighteen centuries and a half, require that
the money-changers should be scourged cut of them
quite as much as ever did the Jewish syn-gognes.
From the motion made yesterday in the House of
Commons by the Honourable Representative of Mon-
trose, and especially from the resolute manner of his
remarlo, we are sanguine that something may at
length be effected in the way of securing this par-
ticular improvement. Mr. Hums, by his observa-
tions last evening, has formally pledged himself to
bring the matter seriously under the consideration of
Parliament ; and from the arguments secured in
favour of his proposition by the experiences of the
public behaviour, both at the British Museum, and
more recently at Westminster Abbey, we are filled
with hope that the advantages so long desiderated by

the well-wishers of the community may be ultimately
obtained through the interposition of the Legislature.
Towards this end the explanation given last evening
by the Right Hon: Baronet her MAJESTY'S Principal
Secretary for the Home Department was uninten-
tionally directed. For, according to the statement of
Sir GEORGE GREY, the moneys collected at the door
of St. Paul's Cathedral are appropriated to their own
use, by the vergers and other attendants, no ac-
counts of them whatever being furnished to the Dean
and Chapter. The carelessness of the whole ar-
rangement consequently reflects the greatest dis-
credit upon those ecclesiastical functionaries, de-
monstrating more clearly than ever the ne-
cessity incumbent upon them of preventing
the continuance of these precarious and intermittent

charges, and the distribution in lieu of them of cer-
tain stipulated salaries to the servants of the esta-
blishment.

Some difficulty is experienced it seems in effect-
ing any such innovation, in consequence of the con-
trol exercised over the funds of the Chapter by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners. But we doubt not
that due decision on the part of the Government
would tend to the immediate removal of all obstacles,
however apparently insurmountable.

The intelligence which it is our painful duty to
communicate this day to our readers will be received
with mingled feelings of surprise and indignation
throughout the country. The Marriages Bill, after
having been carried triumphantly through all its
stages in the House of Commons, has been with-
dra NII in the Lords', and is thus lost for the present
session. This untoward result is the more provoking
inasmuch as it has not been produced so much
through the strength of its opponents, as from
the neglect and apathy of its avowed friends.
If defeated in a fair and manly contest
—if left in a minority on the second reading—there
would have remained some consolation. It would
have been known .that every exertion had been made
to ensure success, which had been fully'deserved,
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Dion, and the hereditary Legislators would not have
been spared the obloquy that would necessarily follow
the rejection of a measure which is essentially one
affecting the civil and religious liberties of the people.
But the spirit of Englishmen is ever opposed
to • " striking the colours" before there has
been even a show of combat, before a single blow has
been inflicted on either side, before even friends
or enemies could be properly diiitinguished, or could
select the respective standards under which they were
disposed to serve. The most signal defeat would
have been preferable to a pusillanimous flight—re-
treat we cannot call it. Any course would, in fret,
have been preferable to that-which was so unhappily
adopted.
We confess that we entertained serious • mis-
Igivings when tsve found the Noble Lord who had
charge of the measure bandying co:nplimenti
with its opponents, and, on the very first show of re-
sistance, taking time to consider of the course he
ought to pursue with regard to the measure. His
response ought to have been manly and straightfor-
ward. He should at once have expres3ed his unalter-
able determination to press the measure forward with
all convenient speed, to lose no opportunity of ad-
vanchig a stage in its progress ; he should
have assumed a firm and unyielding aspect,
and not have encouraged the opponents of
the Bill, of which be was the-legislative sponsor, by
the appearance of vacillation ; but, in place of so
doing, he listened to all the plausible but conflicting
, -
reasons for postponement, and was willing to di:otp-
oillt the well-fomled expectation of thousands and
• _