The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-31 00:00:00

fit toning

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1844.

The French Government has at last published a
dispatch from Morocco. It is from the Prince DE
JOINvu.LE, and we are glad to find that the young
Admiral details the operations before Tangiers and
Mogadore without any boasting, and professes that
the only object of the squadron before these places is

peace. We have no fault to find with the dispatch.
On the whole, it is creditable to the Prince; and
though he attacked Tangiers before the return of Mr.
RAY, the English Consul, from the Court of Morocco,
the fault, acce-ding to his showing, does not lie with

In the Times of yesterday appears an able letter
addressed by a clergyman to the Bishops of Eng-
land and Wales on the subject of the present demo-
ralised condition of the poor, wherein the writer en-
deavours to enlist the sympathy of the Rev. Prelates
in behalf of the more helpless and destitute members
of their flocks, and warns them that the time is for
ever past when they can, without imminent hazard to
the best interests of the Establishment, neglect their
duties as churchmen, or discharge them—as was for
so many years the case—in a spirit of sullen coldness
and indifference. " Connected as the Church is with
the State," observes our Contemporary's Correspon-
dent, " the people have merely a right to consider
that Church as in a great measure entrusted with the
guardianship of its moral health ; we are as watch-
men, whose duty it is to proclaim the existence of
whatever may tend to undermine that health. The
poor look to us as those whose acknowledged calling
points them out as friends of the needy, defenders of
the oppressed. My Lords, is it not most true that
the seeds of moral contamination are being daily
sown amongst a very large proportion of the poor of
our flocks ? We cannot close our eyes to the fact,
that there is that at work which is fast weaning the
affections of the labouring poor from those above
them. Their common rights are fast passing from
them, the labourer will soon become the most lite-
rally of all men a pilgrim on earth, he will not have
where to set his foot but upon a footpath of road.
Scripture once gave the poor a title to the gleanings
of the harvest field, as it gave a title to the tithe of the
priesthood; those gleanings have not been commuted
by agreement with them." For much of this dis-
heartening state of things the Church is unquestion-
ably responsible ; for though of late it has worked
with something like diligence in the spiritual vine-
yard, yet for a long series of years it paid little or no
attention to its duties, but was invariably found looking
sharply after its own selfish temporal interests, to the
neglect of all nobler considerations. Instead of
exerting the immense moral influence it possessed
over the minds of the upper and middle classes of
society in the cause of the poor and the oppressed,
and setting a lofty example of charity, forbearance,
and humility, it was conspicuous only by its apathy,
its hauteur, and its intolerance towards the humbler
orders, reserving its respect and its consideration for
those of superior grade. In a word, it was of " the
world worldly," and too often regarded the poor with
the same supercilious eyes with which DIVES regarded
US LAZARUS in the Scriptures. It is now much im-
proved in its tone of feeling—an amendment, how-
ever, which is less, we fear, the work of choice, than
the result of imperious necessity—but there is sti

room for further improvement, and it must be greatly
changed from what it now is, even if it can be said
fully and conscientiously to fulfil its mission, as the
accredited Church of the poor. The injurious conse-
quences of the neglect of years is not easily reme-
..

died, and it will be a long time before the fstablish
ment regains its old place in the affections and confi,

dente of the lower orders. To advocate the building
of new churches is doubtless a discreet act of policy
on the part of the priesthood; but we tell the Bishop
of LONDON, who is the chief promoter of this scheme,
that he will be far more usefully—and we may even
add, piously—employed, in exhorting his clergy to be
more constant in their attendance on the poorer mem-
bers of their flocks, in ministering to their necessities,
consulting them in their difficulties, sympathising
with them in their sufferings, and acting towards
them in the triple capacity of guides, guardians, and
friends. The multiplication of new churches alone
will not suffice to make a people religious; this can
only be done by the zeal, the charity, the toleration
and munificence of their spiritual pastors and masters.

Mr. D'IsaAELI, who, we believe, is generally con-
sidered the founder, as he is one of the chief sup-
porters, of that school of political zealots who call
themselves " Young England," has just been address-
ing his constituents at Shrewsbury in a speech not
less conspicuous by its calmness and good sense, than
by the manly, healthful tone of independence that
pervades it. Though we may differ from this gentle-
man in some of his more extreme opinions, yet it is
impossible to deny him the praise of being influenced
in his public conduct by the loftiest and most disin-
terested motives. There is nothing petty or grovel-
ling in his views; and if at times he pushes his poli-
tical theories to the verge of Quixotism, yet the error is
one that may be readily forgiven, for it originates
in the most generous impulses, and in a hard, selfish,
utilitarian age like the present, when Maminon-
worship pervades all classes of society, and lofty
principles of action are treated with supercilious con-
tempt, it is little likely to find numerous imitators. We
are by no means unqualified admirers of the doctrines
of " Young England," but mixed up with much
that is puerile, romantic, and extravagant, there is
much that is substantially good in them—much that
appeals to the better feelings of Englishmen—much
that is calculated to elevate and purify their tone
of thought, by reviving their proudest historical
recollections, and raising them from that slough of
distrust and despondency in which the majority are at
present sunk chin-deep. But what we chiefly admire
in " Young England," is the intrepid uncompro-
mising stand which the party is making against the
fashionable Expediency system of the day—a system
which is the bane of every generous emotion, which
begins and ends in Self, and which sacrifices the
great interests of the future to the petty necessities of
the passing hour. Against this narrow, purblind rule
of action, the " Young Englanders" strenuously and
conscientiously protest. They plant their feet on
the high, broad, solid vantage-ground of prin-
ciple, and are not to be lured from their
position by the intrigues, the flattery, or
the sophistries of the expediency-mongers. The
right is with them the expedient, and they will
not allow that a shuffling, timid, evasive course of
policy, can be followed either with honour to the Go-
vernment, or advantage to the country. What they
feel strongly they express boldly ; and do not hold
one language to-day and another to-morrow, merely
to satisfy the small exigencies of the moment. They
are not Conservatives—they are not Whigs-..they are
not Radicals—they are not Chartists. They do not
believe in the infallibility of Sir ROBERT PEEL, nor
do they oppose, as a mltter of course, every
public measure that emanates from a Whig
workshop. They do not think it necesssary
that the agricultural and manufacturing interests
should be kept continually at variance with each
other; but, admitting the latter to be in its way as

him, and must be attributed entirely to the comma-
!
ninitons made by Marshal BUGEAUD, and to the in-
structions from the Minister of Marine. The former
stated that he had been deceived by the Moors re-
specting the expulsion of ARD•EL-KADER, and the lat-
ter ordered the Prince to commence warlike opera-
tions unless the ultimatum of the French Government
was accepted. It appears the ultimatum was not
accepted at the time when the bombardment com-
menced. The EMPEROR demanded the punishment
of Marshal BUGEAUD, which, of course, was not in.
eluded in the French conditions, and the squadron,
without waiting Mr. HAY'S return, began the attack.
What news our Consul brought from the EMPEROR
we have no means of ascertaining, further than from
the remarks of the Prince, that, according to the
report of Mr. HAT, he was much depressed. This
would lead to the inference that he was inclined to
yield, and possibly, also, that he had given Mr. HAY
power to effect an arrangement. Of that, however,
we can say nothing positively till our Government
throws some light on this very mysterious and unex-
pected attack upon a Power so long in friendly al-
liance with England. Dispatches from Marshal
BUGEAUD, giving details of the battle of Isly, have also
been published. They are rather of a different cha-
racter, and boast of the prodigies of valour performed
by the French troops, and the vast havoc made in the
Moorish army. " The Moors," he says, " left on the
field of battle at least 800 killed, and almost the whole
were cavalry ; the infantry, of which there were few,
escaped us principally by means of the ravines. The
Moorish army lost, besides, all its materiel. They
must have had at least 1,500 or 2,000 wounded.
Our loss was 4 officers killed, 10 others wounded,
23 non-commissioned officers and soldiers killed, and
86 wounded. The battle of Isly is, in the opinion of
all the army, the consummation of our conquest of
Algeria. Nothing could tend so much as this event
to accelerate the conclusion of our differences with
the empire of Morocco." The Marshal admits that
he was the agressor, but alleges that he was compelled
to attack in self-defence.