The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE LONDON JOURNALS.

It appears from a circular letter addressed to
the Lords Lieutenants of Counties, that a re-
duction is to take place in the Militia Staff.
The letter states only what is to be retained, not
what is to be dismissed. The saving, however,
cannot be great ; yet we ought not certainly to
slight little savings, wherever they can be' ef-.
fected with propriety. On the principle of the
measure, we shall take the liberty of saying a
efee:vsewd-otrods.b TahfeorNeeatsioondaael, MilitiaWas.so much
altered during the last 'war, in its character and
e
the purposes to which it was applied, that it•
to the people as it
had been at the time of its institution. With
what affectionate regard do Blackstone, Smol-
lett, mid other liberal writers of the last cen-
tury, speak of it, as a poptilar.arol, a civil array,
favourable to public liberty, and formidable to
tyranny only. This has, to a. great degree,
Passed away ; yet still it .must be recollected,
that the Militia is by. the principle of its in-
stitution a • defensive force only, -and not,
like the regular army,. a-defensive—and offensive
force : the- members of it are taken by ballot for
a service of very limited duration, after which
they returned to their homes, mingle with their
neighbours, and resume the popular feelings upon
popular subjects. Now we do contend, that if
it be necessary that thiS force should suffer a re-,
duction, the principle eheuld be extended, and
a similar saving begleaned from-the regular army
—indeed, from every branch of his Majesty's
service ; lbr there can :he no cause why the
power of annoying our neighbours should re-
main unimpaired, whilst the means of exclusively
defending ourselves are weakened and paralyzed.
The Duke of Wellington certainly knows best
what force can be spared, but the habits of his
life would likewise incline him to favour the re-
gular army in preference to the militia,-7-at least,
till he should have become a popular as well
as a powerful Minister,- of Which- -we do
not altogether despair. - The state of 'lre-
land, also, 'if' conciliatory measures are fOrth-
coinink, will -sci6n,'.atid ceitainly,' enable us to
reduce ilti•-regUriiiS; v'tiieh liage a portion
have hitherto -been ditraCef:tilly', employed in
kceping'the peace in thai,co9ntry. The French
have purified the Miriea, and.pacified
pro lc:71110re, if we may use the expression.
They have had occasion for .their. regular army.
We do not grudge them-ore, -rior envy them the
other, of these tasks;-•atid still lest? should we,
being; as liuonateirte
i't,itiristilars," 'ape
or emulate their' ;
nor should we envy them
.force _ever on foot
to excev-
tion of our soon, ended, expedition to Portugal,
we have done nothing since -the _general. peace
which has called for a large.. standing :army, nor
prospectively t.an any occasion be contemplated
in which such an • army can-be required. We
%% ill venture to hope, 'therefore-, that the redue:-
tion which has taken place in the centre, will
be extended to the circumferenC'e, -and, that a
considerable saving will be reaped from the di-
minution of our whole military force.—Times.

The recent dismiSsal of Mr. O'Gorman
Mahon from the Irish Magistracy has produced
exclamations from the parties opposed to each
other on the Catholic question, which illustrate
aptly enough the necessity of some intermediate
and controulling power. While Mr. O'Connell
cries out against such an act as almost incredible
tOr its injustice to a patriot, conspicuous like
Mr. Mahon for his public services and virtues,
the
inoinsterbsottoh -th''ai(tlegsocsodf
re-
turn Corfirr.hibisermla:idesPtya,speAris
.Channel regard it but as a first step iu the
old
system, under which every temporal interest in
Ireland had been brought to the verge of ruin,
and by which no religion had beim allowed to
flourish but that of Popery alone. The com-
mentary made by the Orange Press on this 'cor-
rection of one indiscreet Magistrate, is, that
other Magistrates, not guilty of indiscretion,
must be in like manner struck off the
roll, if Government would redecra its
character. Two Noblemen, it appears, are
selected for this visitation by the Orangemen,
viz. Lords Rossmore and Killeen ; and if
their Lordships are not treated as Mr. O'Gor-
man Mahon has been treated, why the latter p,-en.
tleman has " great cause to complain.”- Now
we ask any man of sense in the country, whether
a Government ought to be envied which feels
itself under the obligation of deferring to or
even tolerating such incendiaries ? We ask
o: all 1
whether it would be possible to avert aseieil war,
(I)
Ireland,
tohu adt,l Inwienries
councils
any law iptre
club
above la
above to be f01..'
lowed ? Lord Killeen is a nobleman
reproach, and, in a community where violent-and
foolish men bear sway,
distinguished
sense and moderation-uished for-good
s only thing to be
t'
regretted in the demeanour' of this highly re-
spectable Catholic is, that he does not enforce
his own natural influence over *the bulk of his
brethren, and assert at (inn his sound judgment
and high station by declaring publicly, with the
same freedom as in private, his disapprobation of
the impolicy into which the Catholics have often
been betrayed, by those whom the diffidence of
their real chiefs had raised to the false rank of
leaders. The Government knows better than to
confound such men as Lord Killeen with any
'‘e,renoirnesoeflitthseoniceount
' hot-brained demagogue f the Association. So
with regard to the liberal Protestant noble-
man Lord Rossmore. What has Lord
ideas
?Go.t%
Rossmore done to be cashiered as a Ma-
gistrate,
do-
cuments relating to his Lordship, which will be
in
read with pleasure, in so far as they
si
which
he
er
inflict a re-
buke from high authority upon the intolerant
insolence of the faction no
longer in power.
The justices of Monaghan
had thought limper
to resent some language e •
mployed by Lord
Itossm speech delivered ore in a s
this.country
on the afTairs of
Ireland, and exposing certain
iniquities practised by the administrators of the
laws. Th • • p 'fi t with eir worsu s were riot sati e c
re-
solutions declaratory
of their own virtuous indig-,
nation at this plain spea • k• is of Lord Rossmore,
but they Sent • the resolutions to the
ey copies
Lord Lieutenant and to Lord Chancellor Hart,
m oilest ly dim itiktg..that a Governor of a county
who could dare to tell such unpleasant truths
about the party spirit of Ireland, ought to his
removed from his office ! His Excellvney does,
not wive concurred with the wibdomi of.
not seem.
this Orange county, but quietly directed Lord
Leveson Gower to inform them, that if they
were aggrieved, the law was open to them. It
remains to be seen whether they will now ad-
dress the King to remove Lord Anglesea and
his Secretary, for presum'ng to leave a bench of
loyal Brunswickers to the plebeian remedy ofthe
law.—/bid.

The trial and sentence of M. de Beranger has
had the effect of adding greatly to • the demand
for his chansons inedites in this country, into.
which supplies have been lately poured at a rea-

le`4,* §onable *price. So much for the wisdom of
elevating Poets to the rank of Martyrs. That
these songs must have enraged the Priests be-
yond measure, will be doubted by no one who
reads them. One of them, " The Devil is
Dead," is almost alone sufficient to prevent a
Priest appearing in public. The story is this:--
Satin having surprised Saint Ignatius at table,
challenged him to a potation. The Patron of
the Jesuits accepted the challenge, and poured
out a cup to the Devil, into which, however, he
put poison. The poison produced its effects,
and Satan expired like a Heretic in convulsions.
The Monks were in consternation—no more
sales of Agnuses—no more money for oremuses
—the conclave is in despair. We thrive by
terror rather than love. Intolerance is almost
extinct ; and if a man escape from our yoke, the
truth will flash on him that God is greater than
the Pope. In this dilemma St. Ignatius takes
the place of the Devil—
" II n'epouvantait plus personne;
feral trembler jusqu' aux rois—
Vols, massacres, guerres ou pestes,
Nrenrichiroot du sud an nord.
Dieu ne vivra que de mes restes"—
who was no longer an object of fear, whereas he
would make even Kings to tremble. The Monks
were in ecstacy, and his order, the support of
florae, eroded dismay even to heaven. A chorus
of Al.gels pity the condition of mankind, in re-
cei\ing St. Ignatius as Satan's successor :
" Un chceur l'ame contrite
Dit : des human's plaignons le sort :
De renter Saint Ignace herite.”
The French have had too narrow an escape from
the Priests to be indifferent to any thing in which
they are parties. The affair of Beranger will
nut tend to soften their animosity. -*chillingly
the Courrier Francais avails- itself of a declara-
tion of the Cardinal' de Clermont TOnnere—
that he will yield obedience to the late measures
of the Government respecting seminaries, in de-
ference to the injunctions of the Pope—to ob-
serve, " One would say that he is afraid he has
not Sufficiently braved the Government by his
hirmer declarations, and that in ceasing to resist,
wishes to brave it still, by telling it that he
its ,sill iii no regard. The Government
11l that ; it is the Government which
rcvved all these old fookries which were the
usury of our fathers; it is tin:. Government
which fa on the idea of re-creating an Epis-
copal power, to' `deliver up to it the treasures
oi" the state, to govern only with the approba-
.ion of the Court of Rome, to cover France with
Convents, to allow the organization of Congre-
gations which 'levy taxes on the public credu-
litv—JeSuits who corrupt, Capuchins who beg,
Missionaries Who preach against the laws. At
the expeoSe of much. humiliation it anticipated a
support ; this support soon failed it ; in place of
auxiliaries it found rebels and enemies ; and
there remains only the humiliation, which in-
creases 'every day." Some other mode of de-
ceiving the people should be thought of; some
mode which flatters.The,prevailing inclinations of
the people. Practices which excite very general
disgust are ill suited to revive the inclinations of
the people in their favour. It is with the love
for a particular religion as with all other loves,—
nothing so difficult as to revive it, when disgust
has taken its place. Persecution may do some-
thing for the Monkarby enlisting the sympathies
of the people in their favour ; but the favour of
the Government is powerless to conciliate in
such a case. The great business of C-hvero-
meta in Europe is not, as simple persons
might suppose, to protect the people, for have
we not the example of England, where the
GoVetnthent finds pretexts of various sorts lot
dividing' among the influential classes the mo-
ney raised by taxation, leaving the people
to provide as they best can for their pro-
tection. • The-French Government cannot di-
vest itself of the recollectiong of the ancien
Rigime ; nor, when it sees the example of
England, can it feel at ease, in seeing how far
it is yet from being a perfect Government. By
our admirable system of indirect taxation, and
our reformed Protestant Church—free, of course,
from all the objections of a pecuniary nature-urged
by the French against their corrupt Church—
our Aristocracy can always live in splendour;
and if their children, legitimate and illegitimate,
be ever so numerous, we can always find the
means of supporting them, without' any charge
to the parents. When the existing places become
too few for the aspirants, we have only to take
possesSion of some new rock in the Southern
Ocean, or discover some new situation on some
distant coast, If the comparison at present is s---o
much in our favour, when the French reflect that
a hundred yettrs back it was as much in favour
of themselve9, they ought not to despair. Go-
vernments have a wonderful aptitude in disco-
vering ways of finding pretexts for maintaining
persons who do honourto the people by consum-
inga the fiuits of their industry. When this takes
place to any exteot, then is a Government great,
n witnessing the splendour
and a people happy i
created by their industry. But a hundred years ago,
we were far behind France in what constitutes
national grandeur. In a hook of Husbandry, by
Nourse, of which the first edition was published
in 1700, the deplorable -state of the English
gentry, who were without the benefit of taxation,
and were just beginning to find their way into
the Church, is contrasted with the palmy state
of the French gentry. " Another thing (he
says) which I shall take notice of as very de-
structive
to our English gentry, redi.cing many
of them to beggary and misery, is their ill edu-
cation, which in truth reflects more upon the
parents than upon the children ; for whilst the
heir sweeps away the-estate, the younger brothers
(upon the death of their parents) being never
settled in a-calling, nor inured to labour, become
wretchedly shiftless. 'Tis true some there are who
are apprenticed out, and some few others there are
who follow divinity, or rather the preferments of
the Church, especially since the tub-preachers
have been removed ; but still there remains -a vast
number of them -who have no other calling but that
of haunting taverns, play-houses, gaining-houses,
&c., or of following and bawling after a pack of
dogs, or of sharking,from house to house,hicloi,f
after the modish word, they call visiting
friends. The French gentry, 'tis true, do not
much affect to place their children to trades, or
to make any alliance with the shop ; but then
they have other ways to dispose of their super-
fluous suckers ; for besides their preferments of
the Clergy, which far surpasses ours, and which
are in a manner engrossed by the Nobility or
Gentry, they have an infinite number of monas-
teries likewise, wherein they bestow or barrel
up the overplus of their families; which monas-
teries are safe and respectable places also for their
less. useful members to retreat in, having been
disgraced by fortune, or such as otherwise are
burthensome, and disposed to live a contempla-
tive and retired life. But besides these, they have
other places too wherein to bestow their members,
I mean their garrisons and armies ; and truly, were
it not for such issues of wit country so luxuriant
as France is, would soon fall into fatal distempers,