The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-02 00:00:00

THE SUN,

was announced that the resolutions " would be laid
on the table in the course of the evening ;" but hour
after hour waned away, vote after vote was taken,
until the House resumed, and the chairman reported
progress. Then at length the Noble Lord the
Member for Marylebone gave expression to the
general feeling. On the motion that the
House should re'olve itself into Committee on the
Duke of CAMBRIDGE'S Annuity Bill, Lord DUDLEY
STUART reminded the Premier of his promise and
asked for its performance. But the Whigs are
masters of " dodgery." The lamented "Mr. Daw-
kins" himself was not a greater adept in the various
shifts and evasions that so justly entitled him to the
title of " Artful." It would not quite do to offend
the Liberal party before that question was decided.
His Royal Highness might otherwise have to deplore
the indiscretion of his allies. -While the matter
remained in suspense, no person would
be willing to throw down the gauntlet-
Each hoped that the course " most conducive to
the dignity and usages of the House" would be in
accordance with his own particular views, and might,
consequently, be more manageable, while a studied re-
serve was maintained. The forms cf the House were
favourable to the concealment. The Speaker in-
formed the Noble Lord that "it was not competent
to put a questio❑ before all the orders of the day had
been disposed of." The Attorney-General maintained
a strict and unbroken silence, although, according to
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, " quite ready to state the nature
of the resolutions, when the Speaker informed him
that he would be out of order in doing so at that time,"
It appeared, however, that the difficulty was not of
an insuperable character, for no sooner was the ques-
tion relating to the Duke of CAMBRIDGE decided than
the resolutions were brought forward without re-
monstrance or interruption, the Speaker remaining
perfectly quiescent, although other " orders of the
day were still to be disposed of." We leave the
public to judge for itself as to the object of this not
very creditable manoeuvre.
As to the resolutions themselves, they are framed
in the true spirit of " Whiggery." The Government is
well acquainted with the value of the Machiavellian
principle, " divide et impera." Lord Joust and his
colleagues have continued in power by arraying the
extremes on either side against each other; at one
time receiving the support of one section, at another
time of another, and thus propping up their own
minority, which would speedily be defeated if left to
their own unassisted exertions. The first resolution
is, consequently, framed in order to catch the votes of
the " Tories," of those bigoted and intolerant parties
who are the unflinching opponents of civil and reli-
gious liberty, and who sigh for the good
old times of penal statutes and restricticl\
and who look upon " dissent" from their own
exclusive and narrow doctrines as little better than
treason. On that resolution they will be opposed by
every true Liberal, by every man duly qualified to
give a proper interpretation of the statutes, and to
decide a " j udicial question " according to the spirit
and intention, and not to the mere letter of the law.
And we have yet sufficient confidence in the repre-
sentatives of the people to say that, notwithstanding
the efforts of their prejudiced and bigoted auxiliaries,
notwithstanding the absence from town of many ho-
nourable gentlemen who have prematurely abandoned
their Parliamentary duties, to entertain sanguine anti-
cipations as to the result, to hope that Baron ROTHS•
CHILD, having taken the substance ofthe prescribed oaths
in the manner which he declared to be most binding on
his conscience—having merely refused a portion of
the adjuration of that which was to be sworn by and
not sworn to—will be admitted to all the rights and
privileges to which his repeated selection by the
constituency of the city of London so justly entitle
him.

The second resolution is intended to allay the in-
dignation of those who will be justly exasperated at
the former, and who may in consequence be inclined
to avenge the injury offered to the great principles of
civil and religious liberty. It is a sort of
pledge that the House will endeavour to repair the
consequence of its own injustice ; that it will, " at the
earliest opportunity in the next session of Parliament,
take into its serious consideration the form of the
oath of abjuration, with a view to relieve her Ma•
JESTY'S subjects professing the Jewish religion ;-
teat the matter will not be postponed to the close of
the Parliamentary sitting, under the specious pre-
text that it will be snore likely to be satisfactorily
settled than if introduced at an earlier period, and
then quietly thrown over to another year. The
Liberals will, of course, vote for this proposition, al-
though of little intrinsic value, for it is difficult to
undfrrstand how the House itself, or the Ministers,
could be more firmly bound than they had
been at the close of the session of 1849, when the
Lords a second time rejected the just and salutary
measure of relief which had been twice carried in
the Commons, and sent up, on each occasion, with
all the prestige attached to a measure carried by a
large and overwhelming majority of the popular re-
presentatives. It is equally certain that the Tory
bigots, through whose aid it is hoped that the first
resolution will be affirmed, will vote against the
second. But, the parties being thus arrayed against
each other, it is anticipated that the Ministerial
" hangers-on " and the :" waiters on PROVIDENCE"
will be sufficient to tura the scale in each case, and
that both may be carried, although by very different
auxiliaries.

Another object may also be obtained. Another
demonstration by the city of London is especially
deprecated by Ministers. The re-election of Baron
ROTHSCHILD would call forth an expression of public
feeling very distasteful to those through wh, se negli-
gence and apathy the question was permitted to re-
main in suspense for an entire year. A greater
triumph could not be afforded to the lordly Oh-
structives" than the absence of any Bill during the
present session of the nature of those that hid been
twice rejected in 1848 and 1849. It would be a vir-
tual confession of defeat, an unequivocal and undig-
nified retreat from the position which the popular
branch of the Legislature had assumed, but from
which they had been driven, disgracefully driven, by
the hereditary lawgivers. What an encouragement
would it afford for future resistance ? How would it
justify the taunts and sarcasms of the leaders of the
Opposition in the House of Peers ? The alternative
is one to be most sedulously avoided and if the first
resolution should, unfortunately, be affirmed, we
earnestly hope that some Liberal Member will bring
forward the Bill which, for this year at least, has been
abandoned by Ministers.

Thanks to the undaunted pertinacity of Mr. HUME
as an economist, the House of Commons is not likely
to lose a recollection of that extravagance which has
so egregiously overstocked the Royal Navy with
admirals. Nor is the detriment resulting to the ma-
ritime service from the present lamentable system of
promotion likely to be overlooked from its insignifi-
cance. It has been our painful duty again and again
to comment upon the evils arising from this scheme
of wholesale advancement, and to demonstrate its
pernicious influence upon the character of our great
national profession. In consequence of certain mis-
apprehensions, we have thereby not unfrequently fallen
under the displeasure of those who have mistaken
our arguments against thus squandering the public
m
retrenchment.
eve
yreaainlyd
parsimoniousoneys ,
for argumentsinfavour
solicitous to witness is, not the diminutionnreto
extent of the Parliamentary munificence to thePoy any
Navy, but its more judicious distribution and its
more
rational apportionment. At present that service hasr
flag-officers enough to furnish three to every one of
her MAJESTY'S ships of war—so that the republican
tricolour of France might not inappropriately be
hoisted, as a triple pennant, in honour of the Admiral
of the Blue, the Admiral of the White, and
the Admiral of the Red, with which each
vessel might be provided. Unhappily, no in-
clination whatever is evinced by the Adminis-
tration to diminish the amount of this maritime in-
cubus. The recommendation of the Committee of
1849, that the number of admirals should, at the very
lowest computation, be reduced from 150 to 100, re-
mains virtually unnoticed by the Administration.
With a persistence that seems almost contumelious,
the long list is preserved in a state of interminable
amplitude. Immediately one flag-officer drops off
another is created to make up the deficiency. Not a
pause cccurs in the system of progression.
The elevation is inevitable. It takes place no longer
its the reward of merit, as the compensation

LONDON,

for long services, or as the distinction won by great
achievements. It is rather the reward of a sound
constitution, the compensation for physical decay,
the distinction won by a good liver and an excellent
digestion. Every post captain bides his time with a
certainty that he has only to wait patiently for a
certain period to attain his flag rank, and that before
that period arrives not all the gallantry in the world,
not all the victories he could gain by prowess
or sagacity, could transform him into an
admiral. Ills course is clearly marked
before him. What he has to do in order to reach
the desired dignity is, not to exercie his abilities in
the service of his country, but simply to have an
eye to the health of his own body, to keep out of
the hands of the physician, to pay some attention to
diet, and by all rational precautions to avoid an in-
troduction to the undertaker. If he can manage to
rub on in this fashion, somehow or other, loitering
along the promenades of some agreeable
watering place, and occasionally running up
to the metropolis to lounge in his club, or
to stroll down to the Admiralty, he may
count upon being ultimately gazetted among the list
of flag-officers, according to the prescribed system of
rotation. That the consequence of any such undis-
criminating plan of promotion should prove to be
most pernicious, is assuredly anything but surprising.
The vigorous conduct of the navy remains perpetually
obstructed—its highest posts of command bring
yielded to old age rather than merit, and selection
ceasing on the threshold of that very rank which
most of all demands caution in its bestowal.

Whoever may have observed our previous remarks
upon this grievance will be sufficiently aware already
that we are solicitous to inflict no injury or injustice
whatever either upon the present flag-officers, or upon
the immediate aspirants for the dignity of admirals
in the Royal Navy of England. All the retrench-
ment we require is a retrenchment depending upon a
graduated lapse of promotions. Instead of maintain.
ing the old blundering system intact, instead of
making an immediate advance upon every individual
demise, we would see the progress of promotion
to the rank of admiral retarded to one in every
three deaths until such time as the cata-
logue of flag-officers should be reduced to within
certain prescribed limitations. Unless some such
effort at amelioration be contrived the service will
continue subject to this calamitous detriment. Until
an endeavour, moreover, of this character shall have
been adventured upon, it behoves every conscientious
economist, and, what is yet more, every one interested
in the welfare of the maritime force of Great Britai❑
to bring the subject again and again under the con-
sideration of Parliament. While the Liberal represen-
tatives of the people are thus striving to force
this long-wished for reform upon the acceptance of
the Government and the Legislature, the Liberal
journalists of England should persist in reviving it
perpetually to the remembrance of the population. It
is by this system of peaceful but pertinacious opposi-
tion, and by this system alone, that innovations like
the proposed innovation in the management of the
Navy, can be_ effected. For ourselves, as journalists
alive to the importance of the great national
service, and conscious moreover, painfully
conscious, of the ill-effects produced in
that service by the existing scheme of administration,
we have for a very considerable time advocated the
reform above alluded to, a reform which we shall
not cease to demand until it shall have been com-
pletely realised.
Enormous advantages would of course accrue to
the British Navy—advantages effectually securing its
invigoration—if the rank of admiral, like that of
captain, of commander, or of lieutenant, could be
rendered in some degree dependent upon good ser-
vices and brilliant achievements. Nevertheless,
while convinced of this, we are so earnestly
solicitous that the improvement upon which
we have been expatiating should be effected
with as little delay as possible, that we set
aside that branch of the question, for the time,
through an anxiety that it might enhance the diffi-
culties standing in the way of innovation. When
the number of admirals shall have been reasonably
reduced, through the intervention. of the Legislature,
then, but not till then, will it be advisable to consider
the principles that should be acted upon in the man-
ner of their promotion. Of ultimately witnessing
that diminution we are still sanguine, notwithstand-
ing the obsti❑acy evinced upon the matter by our ad-
ministrators, and our hopes in this regard are attri-
butable not less to our sense of the conspicuous
nature of the grievance than to our confidence in
the judgment of the Legislature.

CASE OF THE BARON DE
ROTHSCHILD.

Mr. Hume this morning laid on the table of the Home
of Commons the following amendments, which he in-
tends to move to the Government resolutions on Monday
next:—

" That the Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, M.P.
for the city of London, having, as directed by the House,
taken in the manner most binding on his conscience the
oaths of allegiance, of supremacy and of abjuration,
with the exception only of the words at the end of the
oath of abjuration, on the true faith of a Christian,'
cannot be liable to any other penalties than those set
forth in the statutes relating thereto, to be imposed only
by a court of law.
" That the House will, at the commencement of the
next session of Parliament, take into its serious consi-
deration the oaths administered to Members ot Parlia-
ment at the table of the House; and more particularly
the oath of abjuration, with a view to meet the caie
now bt.fore the House; and to make all the oaths mere
consistent with the changes that have taken place since
the passing of the Act enacting the same."

BARON ROTHSCHILD.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—The Resolutions proposed by the Government
on the subject of the representation of London will un-
doubtedly be found in another part of your paper. It is
unnecessary to expatiate on the feelings with which they
will be viewed by the public.
The question which now occurs, is whether it is not a
mockery of God and of all religion, to concede the point
that a man has legal right to be sworn on the Old Tes-
tament, and establish it by allowing him to take two so
lemn oaths, and then to stop him in the presence of God
and the holy angels, by demanding words of him incon-
sistent with the concesbion previously made in the bight
of God, and which it would be voted a blasphemy and
a falsehood if he were then and there to utter.

Put the supposition, that the Member for London
uttered the words "on the true faith of a Christian,"
after being solemnly allowed to take two oaths and the
substance of a third, in the character of a Jew. The
extort of the dilemma will then be seen, in which the
House will place itself, if it does not pluck up spirit to
assert its right of judging from beginning to end, of
what is the substance of the Oath, and what the form.
Nothing can be more certain than that the Legislature
did not mean that the words "on the true faith of a
Christian " should not be changeable, but the book
sworn on might. When one, therefore, was declared to
be changeable, the other el as. The House of Commons
has swallowed the body of the camel, and is sticking at
the ears.

There is stilt time for the Member for London to take
the oath " on the true faith of a believer in the Old Tes-
tament;" which is what the house has virtually ad-
mitted him to do, and the rest is solemn quibbling.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant.
A LAYMAN.
London, 2 August, 1810.

ROYAL PATRIOTIC SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND.—
Several of the directors and friends of the London branch of
the above society dined on Wednesday evening at the Free-
masons' Tavern, for the purpose of arranging plans for bring-
ing the destitute condition of the Highland peasantry and
fishermen before the public, and promoting the industrial im-
provements of the society. Sir James Clark, Bart., M.D.,
presided, supported by Sir Evan Mackenzie, Bart., of Kil-
coy ; Captain C. Forbes, of Aslown ; Charles Mackenzie,
Esq., of Scotsburn ; George Bain, Esq., Honorary Secretary
Highland Society of London, &c. &c. The importance and
efficiency of the society's operations were fully recognised,
and the company pledged themselves to continued exertions
in its behalf.

NEW ACT FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CONVICT
PRISONS.—By an Act of Parliament which has just received
the Royal assent (13th and 14th Victoria, chap. 39), the
Home secretary is empowered to appoint " directors " for
the management of Parkhurst, Pentonville, and Alillbank
prisons, and for all places for confinement of male offenders
in England under sentence of transportation.
Tis FORGERY ON THE AUSTRIAN BANK.—
forgery Custody
of
here
bank-notes
BIRMINCITA3I T •
.. , iiinsmty.—James Hill, who was taken into
tew d
of
ty s
thesi since,
value
for
of beingiso
oi o
n concernedtheßiann theßank
o f
Austria, was to-day brought up before' the magistrates for
el,:
sasnvi i)n
askedation.
for A lar .
further H.
Gem
remand
(instructed
for 14b by
days, the iAt u str
havingia ri
been E-
m necessary to dispatch a messenger to Vienna, for the
purpose of procuring the necessary evidence. The magis-
trates at once acceded to the application. The forged notes
discovered are guldens, and in value about Is. Bd. each Eng-
lish money.
The Vice-Chancellor of England has had a relapse,
and his state was yesterday
evening so alarming, that he
took tile sacrament, and summoned to his bed-side all the
members of his family. His Honour was in Richmond Palk
a few days ago apparently quite convalescent; but we fear
that all hopes of his ultimate recovery must now be aban-
doned.
THE DUBLIN AND BELFAST JUNCTION RAILWAY.
—This railway is opened as far as the Wellington Inn
station about two miles LouthLouthof .. ewry.