The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It was on Saturday last, in the Committee of
Supply, that a variety of important observations
were made on the government of the ColonieS;
4id the difference was then pointed out betwetu
Crown Colonies and others which have Legisla-
tive Assemblies. We are certain that under
whatever denomination our Colonies come, there
never was a time at which frugality and concilia-
tion were more necessary in the government
of them. Sir Ralph kVe-,r,lford, whose death
has occasioned so intieli regret in Trinidad, was
a Civil Govenror, and we cannot understand
why military ones are thought the more ptoper
in time of peace ; at least, we are sure that, un,
der existing circumstances, the former are most
easily rendered amenable to legal process at home
if thr,ir conduct be doubtful. The state of Ca-
riag!ia is one of peculiar interest, and we would
strongly recommend a letter, in this day's jour-
nal, to attentive perusal. It well develqes the
importance of the Colony, and the necessity of
binding it strongly by affectiolt to England ; the
means of self-defence, and the inefficacy of all
methods of attack, it the hearts of the inhabit-
ants be but with us. We hope we shz,:i hear no
more of giving up this important possession, till,
sander our parental and fostering care, it shall
have become a great nation, capable of support-
ing the balance of power among the naticns of
the American continent. Then, indeed, we
may turn it adrift with the most amicable feelings.
It will thank us for having protected its infancy,
and we may look for aid in its mature and full-
grown vigour.—Times.

There is no thinking person whom we have
-2CCI3, insensible to the new aspect of public af,
fairs in Ireland exhibited by the events at Ennis.
The priests have withdrawn the people, it is said,
from their primitive and natural connection
with their landlords. The priests have " dealt
damnation round the land" on each miserable
being who she old, in the discharge of a conven-
tional dut';, or in a tender consideration for
the weP:arc of his family, render himself liable
to be judged a foe" to the interests of
that candidate whom the priests espoused.—
We dread the consequence of this enormous
hypocrisy, and if it be pursued much further,
the consequence will be sure to follow, namely,
a re-action in the public mind of England, fatal
(for fatal we know it would be) to the hopes of
peace, and to the course of freedom, during hall
a century to come. Once let the people of this
country but suspect that emancipation is the
measure of the Popish hierarchy, and not a
measure for the ultimate overthrow of that body,
and the 'ray Catholics of Ireland may assure
themselves that it will be as well for them to
transfer themselves and their self-earned disap-
pointmcnts to Upper Canada or New South
Wales. At present the Catholic priesthood
cetns to be a power no less capable of applying
itself to any other political object than to this of
returning an unqualified representative for Clare.
If the threat of damnation can influence a
wretched peasant to raise his voice for one
Member of Parliament rather than for his adver-

slay, the same blind confidence in the priestly
denunciator will, it is imagined by many
well-meaning Englishmen, seduce him to raise
an arm where a voice may fail—to overturn
property, as well as desert its hitherto well-re-
cognized relations, and to restore to its lost wealth
and splendour the church which, in its poverty,
'he at so terrible a sacrifice obeys. The case we
feel to be bad enough, but we stop far short of
any such extreme conclusions. The force at
this moment in action throughout Ireland,
though dreadful, appears to us vulnerable
from its discordant elements. The priesthood is
mixed up with the aristocracy, of which it is
jealous, and by which it is, wider ordinary cir-
cumstances, despised : it assumes to command
the multitude, by administering to their previous
inclinations, knowing well that if it resisted
the spell would at once be dissolved.
What, therefore, the King's Ministers ought to
do is obvious. Detach the laity from this pe-
rilous and unseemly league,—render it no longer
worth the while of Catholic gentlemen to court
these ambitious hypocrites, or to employ them as
auxiliaries. Satisfy the instructed portion► of the
laymen, and the ignorant will speedily cease at
their instigation to turn for guidance to the
priests. This is the only course that is practi-
cable, if the object he to govern Ireland, not to
waste it. As for the restoration of the Popish
Church to its former wealth, and fixed ascend-
ancy in Ireland, we are sure that, except as mat-
ter of compact for stipulated service, the Catholic
gentry will listen to no such overtures ; and we
feel to the full as sure that, without the gentry,
the priests themselves are nothing.—Bid.
Mr. John Wood presented last night a peti-
tion against the infamous Bill which has been
abandoned—the Additional Churches' Bill—

from the Borough of Leeds, signed by 19,712
inhabitants. In a Leeds Mercury Extraor-
' clinary, dated Wednesday last, there is a full
account of the Meeting held in that borough on
Monday last, at which the above petition was
agreed to. " The Meeting," says our Leeds
contemporary, " concluded about two o'clock
on Monday afternoon, and we must say, that of
all of the Public Meetings we ever attended in
Leeds, this was one of the most gratifying. It
was interesting in the extreme to witness the
gradual developement of those feelings which an
exposure of the arbitrary and dangerous enact-
ments of the Bill called forth. Every mind

seemed filled wonder that a British Mini-

ster could ever have introduced, and a British
Parliament entertained, a -measure so utterly at
variance with the free institutions of this country ;
and when the parishioners separated, it was ap-
parently with the unanimous determination to
leave no legal means untried to avert the danger
with which the country is menaced. This de-
termination manifested itself in a manner unpre-
cedented in this place, and in the short space of 18
hours, the names of nineteen thousand seven hun-
dred and twelve inhabitants were affixed to the

petition. So decisive an expression of popular
opinion would serve to show in what light the
New Church Bill, when properly understood,
will be viewed by the country. At this Meet-
ing Mr. Marshall, the Member for Yorkshire,
was present ; and he observed—" It is not for
me to say whether any effectual opposition caA
be made to this Bill in time House of Commons,
as that House is at present constituted ; but if

it can, it must he through the public voice,
strongly and decidedly expressed against it.
—The Members of the House of Commons
—of that House which pretends to repre-
sent the people of England, are, in a great
measure, the mere nominees of the Aristocracy.
11 the great and populous towns like this, the
seats of our manufacturers and commerce, which
contribute so essentially to the prosperity and
wealth of the nation, are entirely unrepresented.
I hope and trust the time is not far distant when
these great towns will combine together to de-

inand that share in the representation winch is
so unjustly withheld from them.—(Hear.)—
Gentlemen, I am afraid this Bill will require
your opposition mi another ground ; for if it
should pass into a law, there is great rtason to
fear that it will be only one of a series of the
same complexion: 'l'hc Noble Duke now
at the head of the Government has succeeded
in discarding from his Administration all
the moderate and liberal men, who, under
Lord Liverpool and Mr, Canning, were
the means of introducing a better and more
liberal policy both at home and abroad—and
the Noble Duke has now the satisfaction of hay,
ing fbrmed an Administration purely aristoera,
tical—and it is to be apprehended that the iute•
rests of the Aristocracy, rather than the welfare
of the people at large, will be the thing princi-
pally attended to. Of this Administration, this
Bill is a kind of first fruits—to be followed, if
it succeeds, by many others.—(Hear, hear.)"—
Few who have attended to the proceedings of
Parliament of late will hesitate to subscribe to
this opinion of the Duke's Administration, ex-
pressed by Mr. Marshall. It is an Administra-
tion purely aristocratical—the ready and devoted
tools of the Aristocracy. it was observed in
the Debate •-_•n Friday night, respecting the
Lieutenant,Generalship of the Ordnance, by Mr.
Baring, that the country depended more upon
the will and pleasure of gentlemen on the Trea-
sury Bench than upon the House itself. This
is, in other words, the same opinion as that deli-
vered by Mr. Marshall, The more corrupt a
Ministry, the more popular it will be with Par-
liament; and the more honest, the more unpo-
pular, The Duke's Administration will be
ffore popular in Parliament than any we have
had for a long time, precisely because it is the
most unprincipled. So long as he can keep
his 'establishment strong in men, whose minds
are like blank paper, on which any thing may
be written that may suit the convenience of
the moment—men who can coolly advocate
Archbishop of Canterbury jobs, suffer them-
selves to be detected in smuggling through Ad-
ditional Churches' Bills at two o'clock in the
morning, he will be acceptable to Parliament.
What if' public indignation be occasionally rous-
ed, when the worst comes to the worst, it is only
abandoning the measure. In proportion as
public indigation is roused, Parliament is good-
humoured, because the indignation is incurred
in its service. By returning perpetually to
the charge, by making one job follow close on
the heels of y another, the public will be fairly
tired out, for is too heavy a machine to be moved
lightly ; and thus the Ministry can very well
afford to allow a job or two occasionally to mis-
carry when the odium becomes too groat. The
experiment made by time Duke of Wellington
hitherto with so much success, will probably be
decisive of the future march of the Government.
The liberal part of' the Liverpool and Canning
Administrations, who attached some importance
to principles as well as to their own characters,
were necessarily unpalateable to Parliament, on
the rapacity of which they were felt as a restraint.
It may be truly said, that almost all the mea-
sures of Government for these seven or eight
years, were odious to the two Houses be-
cause they evinced sonic regard for the public
good. But the Duke has prudently fallen in
with the bias of' the Houses, having discovered
that the Aristocracy of the country form in
reality but one body, and that by humouring
that body, he will only have to 'encounter the
opposition of tile few upright men who arc su-
perior to the considerations of the vulgar inte-
rest, and disdain to enter into any compromise
with their principles. In all ranks of life such
men will be found ; but they form a very small
minority of' the aristocracy. By ministering to
the prejudices and the desires of the great body
of the aristocracy, the Duke will have the great
body with him. Being in no uneasiness about
the votes, he will give himself very little concern
about the speeches• directed against the system
which procures for him the votes. Without
being the apologists of Mr. Huskisson's con-
duct in joining the Duke's Administration, we
can never forget that for several years that Mini-
ster incurred the peculiar hatred of the aristo-
cracy, on no other account than his strenuous
endeavours to promote, according to the best of
hip judgment, the interests of all classes. That
the Duke was anxious to get rid of him and his
friends, in order to supply their place with men
of blank minds, is the highest tribute which can
be paid to them. The Duke did not wish cha-
racter or principles, but votes ; and he found the
former in the way of the latter.—Morning
Chronicle.

There is a proverb among our northern bre-
thren,, who are most excellent judges in such
matters, that " the King's chaff is worth other
folks' corn." The meaning conveyed by this
adage is, that the King pays high and exacts
little. There are many who would endeavour
to controvert the Scotch maxim, and make out
Government to be a hard master, reaping where
it has not sowed, and gathering where it has not
strewed. But, somehow or other, it invariably
happens with such people, that whatever be the
hardships of the service, they cling to it most
pertinaciously. It is a common practice to com-
pare and to contrast the situation of Government
clerks with those in merchants' offices ; but,
though we often see merchants' clerks shift from
one master to another, we never find Govern-
ment clerks shift, unless from a good place to a
better. Whatever, therefore, may be said on
the matter, we hold that there is abundant prac-
tical proof that Government service is no despi-
cable affair. A Bill is at present moving through
the House of Commons, on the recommenda-
tion of the Finance Committee, which has ex-
cited much displeasure among those gentlemen,
yet for what reason we cannot well discover.—
The object of the Bill is to create a super-
annuation fund out of the salaries of the per-
sons who are to enjoy its advantages. What
can be more fair than this ? Were these gentle-
men in merchants' counting houses, they could
only enjoy superannuation by submitting to a
yearly tax for its purchase ; and why should they
not purchase. it in the same way when serving
Government ? The reductions already made
have it is said, in a very well written pamphlet
on this subject, been severely felt. No doubt
they have—all reductions are. And does the
writer imagine either that reductions in salaries
have been limited to Government offices, or
that only the gentlemen there arc aware of the
difference between luxury and competence ?
Many have contracted marriages on the prospect
of enlarged income, and have been disappointed
And how many have contracted marriages, not
with the prospect, but with the possession of
wealth, since the commencement of the
peace, and are now in the workhouse ? The
great mass of the clerks in public offices we
are told are in the receipt of salaries not
exceeding three hundred pounds a-year. And
the great mass of the Officers in the Army

and the Navy, for services ten•times more onerous,
arc in possessiom of incomes one-third of that
amount. We grant that the clerks do the du-
ties appointed fiii• them. They do not eat the
bread of idleness, and it is not fit they should ;
but still their labours are light compared to the
labours of clerks ha private counting-houses,
and their remuneration is higher. We do not
wish to say any thing harsh or unkind
.on this
subject. But, making every allowance for men
who see in the Bill in question their present in-
come threatened, we cannot help calling on
them to look round for a moment before they
give their feelings utterance. Do they not see
in every class of society, but more especially in
the class of clerks, the utmost difficulty in ob-
taining even the lowestand worst-paid situation ?
Do they not see every day establishments broken
up, and old and faithffil servants thrown on the
world, without fund or friends to succour or
solace them ? Have they not, within the last
twelve years, seen every description of labour
fall in price twenty, thirty, in many cases fifty
per cent. ? Let them consider this, and then
ask themselves coolly, whether it is likely that
the public will sympathise with men whose only
ground of complaint is,that
they must, out of
their present superfluities, provide for their future
subsistence when rendered by age incapable of
labour ?—Neze Times.