The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-10 00:00:00

THE SPIRIT OP TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Among other arrangements for the guidance of
the Allied Powers, rendered necessary by the Ma-
.uifesto of the Porte, is one the importance of which
must appear obvious to every one,—viz. a determi-
nation of the precise limits of what is to be under-
stood to constitute " Greece," the subject matter of
the treaty of July, and the cause of all the present
commotion. There are indeed, some droll stories
circulated respecting this matter. It is even alle-
ged, that in drawing the line of demarkation be-
tween the territories which should belong to tke
Grand Scignor and the Greek people respectively,
the negociators forgot that Greece had ever con-
tained a city called Athens i--" the part of Hamlet
left out," as the old story goes. If this geographi-
cal chef d'ceuvre had been the work of some igno-
rant soldier, whose recollection of warlike scenes and
history had never been burdened with such names
as Marathon, Miltiades, Alcibiades or Phocien, or
had some jealous native of Bocotia got bold of the
diplomatic minutes, and expunged from the map of
Christian Greece that glorious region which eclipsed
every other for ages before as well as after the most
learned of the followers of .Jesus challenged the
proud genius of ancient philosophy to an examina-
tion of the spirit of the Gospel, it might not have
so much surprised as grieved us to find, that in pro-
viding for the liberties of the Greek people, those of
Attica had been silently passed over and left to the
brutal Turks. But Lord Dudley is not a mere sol-
dier, nor a Boeotian ; and to him, with Lord Aber-
deen, we leave in trust the guardianship of the soil
of Athens.—Tiines.

It affords us satisfaction to learn that the Finance
Committee have already concluded their investiga-
tion of the Navy Estimates, and are now at work
upon the Army, where au honourable and rigidly
economical gentleman, as we hear, has contrived to
show; in sundry cases, that the public time is not
among those articles which he deems it -of import-
ance to save. It might be as well for a great re-
furmer of the expenditure to be taught-(but, indeed,
this personage is complained of as unteachable),
that if pence be of some value, the value of pounds
is still more considerable ; and that more will be
done in the way of useful • parsimony by establish-
ing sound principles, than by peddling for ever about
fractions. We do not know NV1444 Mr, Goulburn
may feel as to his own particular comFetency in mat-
ters of finance : if he wished well from the bottom
of his heart to the success of those famous ", ex-
planations" furnished, or rather promised, some
weeks ago, by the Right Hon. Gentleman who pre-
ceded him at the Treasury, Mr. Goulburn must
have been a most generous man, inasmuch as it is
quite laughable to dispassionate observers, with what
marvellous and undisguised coolness the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer has on many oc-
casions been treated by the ex-one,—like how
mere an apprentice he is snubbed and sneered at.
In fact, the Peel concern in the Cabinet begins to
turn musty, both master and journeyman : neither
have been tried betbre in any but subaltern ollices,
the principal as second to Mr. Canning,—the de-
pendent as an Orange sentinel over Lord Wellesley,
lest the poor Marquis should break bounds. Nei-
ther has the Minister for the Home Department
made much way recently in the favour of a great
Personage, by all his tacks and doublingsl he -has
not got au inch to windward. We repeat, " he made.
no fight on the Test and Corporation Acts." "He
is worse than poor Goody would have been as a
leader of the House of Commons ;" and besides,
" he is" (Oh, inexpiable offence!) " underbred."
We, of course, must not say who the person may be
whose speeches are thus reported ; but they are, as
many persons know, authentic speeches. The Duke
of Wellington, we have heard, was sent for by his
Majesty at five o'clock on Friday afternoon, but was
unable to attend from illness„. His Majesty suffered
much, it appears, in his own person, from some ne-
glect in the duty of airing his apartments •at St.
James's. It is stated, that recourse was had to
leeches after the Council had concluded: It is un-
derstood, however, that his M:ijesty, before leaving
town, will hold•two levees and a drawing-room and
ball.—lbid.

As the Church, which is generally thought to
twive an excellent nose for scenting danger, remained
tranquil, while the Dissenters were bestirring them-
selves for the repeal of the Test and Corporation
Acts, turning-a deaf ear to all the solicitations ofits
noisy friends—the Ultra Journalists—to gird on its
armour and take the field, we began to think there
was no real cause for apprehension. In fact, we
had imagined that the obnoxious Laws were a source
of weakness rather than of strength to the Church,
giving to it neither additional numbers, nor increase
of property, but furnishing the Dissenters, who
might otherwise be indifferent, with good grounds
for hostility to it. A friend in need is a friend in-
deed, says the proverb, and it seems the Church has
one friend more than it probably dreamed of; for
Mr. Cobbett has just stepped forward to its aid,
with a number of reasons to prove that if the Test
and Corporation Acts be repealed, the Church is
ruined and undone for ever. He seems to think that
there is a connection between these Acts and the
idea which is entertained by the people, that the
heads of Dissenting Ministers are made for the pur-
pose of being decorated with the contents of addled
eggs, and that without this supposed right to pelt
Ministers, the Church would 10-c all its attractions
for John Bull. But we will allow him on this inte-
resting subject, to speak fur himself:—
" The notion is hereditary in the people in general, that
the law holds the religion of the Dissenters as being unfit
to be taught to those who are to be possessed of powers,
honours, and emoluments. Those persons who pretend
that the repeal will have no practical effect, can know
nothing of the people, or their ways of thinking upon
these matters. The head of a Dissenting Minister has al-
ways been" looked upon, by the common people of the
country, as being made for the express purpose of being
decorated with the contents of addled eggs. Many an egg
have I employed in that way, and never did I think that 1
was doing any thing that was wrong ; and I remember
that, at Motley, only about 12 or 15 years ago, when the
young fellows pelted the Methodist Parson, and made his I
colour nearly completely yellow ; and the country people
in general thought them very harshly treated, because the
Magistrates (mostly Parsons) at Winchester gave them a
very:severe scolding, and had the cruelty to send them
home again, to the distance of ten miles, without ordering
the constable to give them one single pot of beer, at the
county's expense. Gentlemen of the Collective Wisdom of
the nation may say and think what they please about this
Bill producing no practical effect ; but I know that it will
produce a great practical effect, from one end of the country
to the other. The pulpits of every sect, from the Mug,gls-
tonians to the Presbyterians, will ring with exaltations._
The mass of the people nerer split straws; they rush at
once to conclusions, and ascribe the conclusion in short and
pithy phrases. The general saying will he, that the 'Die-.
senters have got the day ;' ' that they hare beaten the
Parsons and as they are apt to anticipate, they will say
that the Church is about to he pulled down. The next.
Sunday after they have receivad this news, they will look.
upon the Church Parson as a defeated man. Nobody wilt
persuade them that this is a matter of little consequence,
for they have sucked in the contrary notion with- their
mother's milk."

It is for the Church, then, at this awful crisis, to
consider, whether it will part without a struggle,
with an advantage, which is so
peculiarly interpreted
by its followers, and the loss of which will deprive
Church-goers of what constitutes its chief attraction
in the eyes of Churchmen. We were not before
aware of the importance of addled eggs to the
Church. But then, if, as ldr. Cabbett states, " the
Church of England,
as by law
established, although
it swallows up so much, is well known to be the
teacher of comparatively a very small part of the
people ;" and " the Dissenting Ministers teach six
to their one throughout the country, might not the
six learn to pelt with addled eggs as well as the
one If the sons of the Church throw addled eggs
at the heads of Dissenting Ministers, the Dissenters
might retaliate on Bishops, Deans, and
,Prebenda-
ries ; and even according to Dr. Southey s calcula-
tion, who Emakes a Dissenter but half an English-
man, there would be three dissenting eggs thrown
for every Church egg. A privilege of this kind is
something like the Tartar prisoner, of very ques-