The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-06 00:00:00

fourtb2bition

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Cloch.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

GLOBE.—The present session promises to be in no
respect inferior to any of its predecessors in the do-little
course of legislation. There has been much noise, but
little work. One Bill after another has been introduced,
to be debated, and withdrawn. Others have been pro-
mised by the Government as an inducement to Mem-
bers who had brought forward measures for the re-
moval of acknowledged evils, which Ministers could
not defend, but had no disposition to remedy. These
gentlemen—we think too readily—consented to with-
drew their measures, on a pledge from the Government,
that bills of a comprehensive kind, in which the removal
of the grievances complained of should be provided for,
were to be forthwith introduced. Week after week
has crept away, but nothing has been heard of these
promised measures. The end was answered. Time
was gained by the promise ; which, like "dicers' oaths,"
were worthless. The evils which brought gain to a few
at the expense of the many, were thus preserved,
at least for another session ; and by some fortu-
nate chance, may even escape the threatened extirpa-
tion altogether. When Lord Worsley drew the atten-
tion of the House of Commons to the disproportionate
amount of fees on summary convictions to the penalties
inflicted for the offences, and from the returns furnished
by order of the House of Commons, established an unan-
swerable case forlegislative redress, what was the conduct
of the Government? The evil of the existing system was
admitted: it could neither be denied nor defended. The
notice of the Government having been directed to the
subject, it had already given directions for a bill to be
prepared to abolish the present, and provide a better
mode of paying the clerks of petty sessions. It was
therefore to be hoped that the Noble Lord who had
brought the question before the House—at whose
instance the returns upon its table had been ordered,
and by which the evil had been exposed—would leave
the matter in the hands of Government, and withdraw
his motion. Lord Worsley yielded to the request. Mr.
Manners Sutton's bland compliments were irresistible.
Lord Worsley did, indeed, venture to ask when the
promised measure might be expected to reach such a
maturity of preparation as to be in a tangible shape for
the legislative process ? The Hon. Under-Secretary of
State for the Home Department could not exactly say
when. No time would, however, be lost ; certainly
the Bill would be before the House during the present
session. As the session was yet young, there was
some reason to look for a fulfilment of the pledge. The
matter rested thus till last evening, when the Noble
Lord (Worsley), who had received the promise, "wished
to know from the Right Hon. Baronet when the Bill
would be introduced by the Government for regulating
the fees to magistrates' clerks." Sir J. Graham, with one
of his sweetest smiles, gave the matter-of-course intima-
tion, that the measure inquired after was precisely in that
hopeful state which rendered all idea of its making its ap •
pearance during the present session wholly out of the
question :—" The measure was in course of preparation ;
but it was now, he feared, too late to introduce it, with
any hope of its passing into a law during the present
session." So much for the measure ! But what shall be
said of the faith of Government--of the promise
which induced Lord Worsley to resign his measure,
which he had prepared with great care and diligence ? The
information contained in the speech by which his Lord-
ship brought the subject before Parliament, had made
so powerful an impression on the House and the coun-
try as to insure the passing of his Bill. The obvious
inference from Mr. Manners Sutton's language was,
that the Government measure would be immediately
introduced. And now, after waiting nearly three
months, the chief of the department comes forward
to announce that nothing can be done in the
matter during the present session ; but without de-
signing to tell why—except the old, worn-out official
apology, that at this advanced period of the session it is
" too late" to introduce the promised Bill. Thus " The
Fees to Clerks in Petty Sessions Bill" is added to the
measures which were promised—to be postponed, sine
die—apparently with the hope that they will never be
again called for ; or if called for, in so faint a tone as to
enable Ministers to avoid fulfilling the pledges they
have given to Parliament and the country respecting
them.

STANDARD.—It would be curious and instructive
to trace the history of the "Socinians' Usurpation Con-
firmation Bill," or, as it is improperly called, the "Dis-
senters' Chapels Bill," which is, as o'ur readers know, to
come before the House of Commons this evening. The
inquiry of which we speak would be curious, because we
believe that the starting into life, fully armed and
equipped, without any ostensible parent, of a measure of
such deep interest and such vital importance, has no
precedent. The inquiry would be instructive,
because the process by which these sly imitators of the
cuckoo, the Socinians, have deposited their odious mea-
sure in the hands of the Government, might explain the
contrivances by which they have furtively smuggled them-
selves and their accursed doctrines (the Holy Scripture
calls their doctrine accursed) into so many chapels raised
for Christian worship. Nobody can believe that the Mi-
nisters, oppressed as they are with an overwhelming
mass of indispensable public business, and frequently
as they are compelled, in the faithful discharge of their
public duty, to give offence to their friends, have willingly
encumbered themselves with the labour and the odium
of this unjust and hateful measure. That would be, in-
deed, to realise what Sheridan said of the practice of the
Whigs, " to build a wall for the purpose of knocking their
heads against it." There must have been some misrepre-
sentation, some unwary promise made upon that mis-
representation, hastily caught up—for the thing is so
completely out of the regular sphere of Government
measures, that we are persuaded, though it were just'
and harmless, as it is iniquitous and mischievous, no
Government, unimportuned, would ever think of it
for fifty years. We trust, for the sake of the Mini-
sters, whom we sincerely respect, and whom it is our
most anxious wish to support in all their measures,
that the true history of the Bill will be given in
the approaching debate. If the Government has
been entrapped by the crafty and dishonest infidels,
who can only benefit by such a Bill, the ex-
planation of the fraud will at once enable Parliament to
rehevelhem from all difficulty. The difficulty in which
the Bill involves the Government is indeed a serious one.
It places the Conservative Cabinet, and those who sup-
port it, in open and direct hostility with all their best
friends without exception—with churchmen of all sec-
tions, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, as-well as with Baptists,
Independents, and all other denominations of Chris-
__.

than Dissenters—the only allies, as respects prin-
ciple, upon n whom the Government can count being
the Socinians themselves and the political Romanists.
This is an unpleasant view of affairs to the many who,
like ourselves, wish to see the present Government
strong in the confidence of the country and in the
affections of their countrymen, and not relying altogether
upon the strength of pliant votes secured merely by the
consideration that the only choice lies between the
present Government and a worse Government. Such a
title to office is surely below the pretensions of
her Majesty's present advisers, both from their
character and their talents. What in the world
has her Majesty's Government to do with Socinian
chapels ? Is there nothing else in the law that
requires reform, that they will stumble upon this
unhappy question, on which they must give
to nine-teuths of the people :of the United
Kingdom that kind of offence which is never
forgiven by conscientious men, because it is
believed, -and, as we think, rightly believed,
to be an offence against religious truth ? It
was painful to many to be compelled to oppose
Sir Robert Peel's Government upon the factory ques-
tion, and doubtless the consideration which made it
painful to those who opposed the Government upon
the occasion referred to, was the motive that ral-
lied so many supporters to the Ministerial benches
This,-however, is a more seriousquestion than the factory
question either morally or politically considered. Clearly
convinced as a great majority of the nation probably is of
the sinfulness of affording unjust, facilities to the pro-
pagation of Socinian doctrines, men cannot com-
promise with conscience themselves upon the point,
or forgive those whom they suspect of making such
compromise. One holding the opinions that are gene-
rally and justly held of the nature and tendency of
Socinian doctrines would no more, upon considerations
of expediency, promote the propagation of theie doc-
trines, than he woulkupon such considerations, join in
the opprobrious vote of the tenth Thermidor. Here
there is a line which conscientious Christians cannot
pass themselves, and which, if passed by others deli-
berately and with their eyes open, must operate as a wall
of perpetual separation between those who pass it and
those who do not.

SHOCKING ATTEMPT at MURDER
NEAR LOUTH.
On Tuesday evening last, about nine o'clock, the ut-
most consternation was created in Louth, from the
galloping into the town of a mounted messenger, who
sought the assistance of the police in endeavouring to
discover the retreat of a ruffian who had made an at-
tempt to murder an old man, named Jacob Gainsley,
and his wife, who keep the toll-bar on the Spilsby-road,
about two miles from Louth.
About eight o'clock on the above evening, a tall,
stout, banker-looking fellow called at the bar, and asked
for a biscuit and a cup of water, which were
plied to him by old Gainsley, and of which he sat down
and partook. When he had finished he went out, and
on his return said he would have another biscuit and a
bottle of ginger beer. These were also supplied, and
soon afterwards he rose from his chair, went up to the
fire, and taking down a brace of loaded pistols which were
hanging over the mantelpiece, said to the old man,
" What do you keep these for?" to which he replied,
"To protect myself from robbers." The ruffian in-
stantaneously levelled a pistol at Gainsley, and fired.
Providentially the ball missed, and lodged in the opposite
wall. lie then pulled from his pocket a heavy hammer,
with which he began to beat the poor old man on the
head. The noise brought out Gainsley's wife, who was
in a little parlour, who seized the assailant by the necker-
chief, when, to release himself, he took hold of the fore=
finger of her hand with his teeth, and completely bit
off the first, joint. lie then began beating the
old woman on the head with the hammer until
she was nearly insensible. All this was but the work
of a moment, and at this stage Gainsley's son, a stout
young man, who was bed in another part of the
house, rushed into the room in his shirt, when the vil-
lain fired at him with the second pistol, the ball of
which must inevitably have proved fatal, had it not
entered the thick part of his right arm, where it
lodged. The poor fellow grappled with the wretch,
and in the struggle he was severely cut about his
right hand with a razor, which his opponent pulled
from his pocket. He succeeded, however, in wresting