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 tha
general feeling. On the motion that the
House should resolve 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. Dew.
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 of the House were
favourable to the concealment. The Speaker in-
formed the Noble Lord that "it was not competent
t o put a question before all the crders of the day had
been disposed of." The Attorney- General maintained
a strict and unbroken silence, although, according to
Lard 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 manccuvre.
As to the resolutions themselves, they are framed
in the true spirit of "yhiggery." The Government is
well acqueinted with' the value of the Machiavellian
principle, "divide et impera." Lord JOHN and his
colleagues have continued in power by arraying the
extremes on either side against eech 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 restriction
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 coefidence in the repre-
fentatives of the people to say that, notwithstanding
the efforts of their prejudiced and,bigotcd auxiliaries,
notwithstanding the absence from town of many ho-
nourable gentlemen who hive 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 wlio 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-
JESTICS subjects professing the Jewish religion ;"
that the matter will not be postponed to the close of
the Parliamentary sitting, under the specious pre-
text that it will be more 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 i 3 difficult to
understand 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
Loris 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 mejority 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 turn 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
ROTHBCHILD would call forth an expression of public
feeling very distasteful to those through whose 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 Ob-
structives" than the absence of any Bill during the
present session of the nature of those that had 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. HOME
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 conse%uence of certain mis-
apprehension!, we have thereby not tuafrequently fallen
under the displeasure of those who have mistaken
our arguments, against thus squandering the public
moneys, for arguments in favour of a niggardly and
parsimonious retrenchment. What we are really
solicitous to witness is, not the diminution to any
extent of the Perliamentary munificence to the Royal
Navy, but its more judicious diatribution and its more
rational apportionment. At present that service has
flag-officers enough to furnish three to every one of
her MAJESTY'S ships of war-30 that the republican
jtricolour of France might not inappropriately he
"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 nnmber of admirals should, at the very
lowest computation, he reduced from 150 to 100, re-
mains virtually unnoticed by the Administration.
With a persistence that seems almost contumclious,
the long list is preserved in a state of interminable
amplitude. Immedietely one flag officer drops off
another is created to make up the deficiency. Not a
pause occurs in the system of progression.
The elevation is inevitable. It takes place no longer
as the reward of " merit, as _ the Compensation
i '
2t

_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. His course is clearly marked
before him. What he has to do in order to reach
the desired dignity is, not to exercise 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 gazette(' 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 being
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. Ail 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
eflbrt at amelioration he contrived the service will
continue subject to this calamitous detriment. Until
an endeavour, moreover, of this character aball have
been adventured upon, it behoves every conscientious
eccnonaist, and, what is yet more, every one interested
in the welfare of the maritime force of Great Britain
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-
tior, and by this system alone, that innovations like
the proposed innovation in the management of the
Nay:, 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-
(ices 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,
thee, but not tilt 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 obstinacy 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 Gavernment resolutions on Monday
next:—

" That the B iron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, M.P.
for the city of London, having, as directed by the House,
taken in the manner most binding ou 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 otter penalties than those set
forth in the statutes relating thereto, to by 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 Mcinbe'rs of Parlia-
ment at the table of the House; and more particularly
the oath of abjuration, with a view to meet the case
now b.fore the House; and to make all the oaths mcro
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.

Sin,—The Resolutions proposed by the Government
en 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 vietved by the public.
The question which now occurs, is whether it is Rot 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 concession previously made in the sight
of God, and which it would be voted a blasphemy and
a falsehood if helwere 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 caths and the
substance of a third, in the character of a Jew. The
extent of the dilemma will then be seen, in which the
Ilouse 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
Chrittian " should not be changeable, but the book
sworn on might. When one, therefore, was declared to
be changeable, the other was. The House of Commons
has swallowed the body of the camel, and is sticking at
the ears.

There is still time for the Member for London to take
the oath •" on the true faith of a believer in the Old Tet-
tatnent;" 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, 1850.

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 Seotsburn ; George Bain, Esq., llonorary 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.
Prusorrs.—By an Act of Parliament which has just received
the Royal assent (13th and 14th
.Victoria, chap. 39), the
Home secretaryis empowered to appoint " directors " for
the management of Parkhurst, Pentonville, and Millbank
' prisons, and for all places for confinement of male offenders
in England under sentence of transportation.
THE FORGERY ON THE AUSTRIAN BANK.--
BIRMINGHAM, THCRSDAY.—James Hill, who was taken into
custody here a tew days since, for being concerned in the
forgery of bank-notes of the value of 15,0001. on the Bank of
Austria, Was to-day brought-up before the magistrates for
examination. Mr. H. Gem (instructed by the Austrian Em-
bassy) asked for a further remand for 14 days, it having been
found 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
3iscovered are guldens, and in value about ls. Bd. each Eng-
lish money.
'The Vice-Cbancellor of England has had a relapse,
and his state was yesterday evening so alarming, that he
ok the sacrament, and summoned to hi 3 bed•side all the
members of his family. His Honour was in Richmond Park
afe
wcaysag apparently quite convalescent; but we fear
that all hopesof his ultimate recovery must vow be aban-
doned.-

---- -
THE DUBLIN AND BELFAST JUNCTION RAILWAY.
—This railway is opened as far as the Wellington Inn
station about tric, lades youth of Newry.