The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-14 00:00:00

Marvin :Ant

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1844.

The reply of Louis PHILIPPE to the address of the
Corporation of London, delivered on Saturday, will
be read with great satisfaction by every Briton, and
we believe, also, by the great body of the French
nation. It will, of course, offend the war party, for
everything the KING does or says offends them ; but
it abounds with so much good sense, good feeling, and
incontrovertible truths, that it must carry conviction
to every impartial mind. Its importance will be felt, not
only by Englishmen and Frenchmen, but by the whole
world. Peace between England and France is a
pledge for universal peace. There may be partial
collisions and battles among the minor States--
France may have recourse to force to protect her
Algerine possessions—Russia may carry on war
against the Circassians, and England may be compelled
to interfere with some of the States bordering on her
Indian dominions ; but these have mere the semblance
of family broils than war. They do not obstruct com-
merce or civilisation, they excite only a partial inte-
rest, while a war between the two greatest nations of
Europe would, in a few weeks or months, change the
whole commercial policy of the world. Thousands
would be thrown out of employment, or compelled to
enlist in armies formed for mutual destruction ; the
capital engaged in many vast undertakings would be
lost ; countries, overrun by hostile and ferocious
soldiers, would become a prey to rapine and murder ;
and when the tragic scene was brought to a close,
universal joy would succeed, and the rational
portion of mankind wonder at the folly
and madness of kings and statesmen. With
a firmness and boldness, considering the spirit
of many of his people, which, perhaps, is
unequalled in the history of sovereigns, Louis
Pimarra has staked his political existence on the
maintenance of an honourable peace. It is not peace
at any price, is the insulting cry of the National and
the Constitutionnel. Never was such a cowardly
sentiment entertained by the KING or his Minister,
for the best of all reasons, because they know France
would not submit to any Government that would
maintain peace at the expense of, national honour.
Disregarding these war organs, the KING had the
courage and honesty to proclaim these noble senti-
ments, not only to the Corporation of- London,
but to the world :—" lam convinced, as you
are, that peace and friendly relations be-
tween France and England are, for two nations
made to esteem and honour each other, a
source of innumerable and equal advantages. The
prosecution of that good understanding is, at the same
time, a pledge of peace to the world at large, and se-
:lures the tranquil and regular progress of civilisation,
ror the benefit of all nations. I consider my co-ope-
ration in this holy work, under the protection of
DIVINE PROVIDENCE, as the mission and the honour
of my reign. Such has been the aim and the object of
all my efforts, and I trust that the ALMIGHTY will
crown them with success."
Contrast this with a bulletin issued from head-
quarters after a great battle, which usually runs in
these words :—" We have gained a great victory; we
have killed ten thousand of the enemy ; the number of
wounded exceeds twenty-five thousand; the country
has been laid waste for many miles ; some rich towns
have been sacked and burnt, and all but the young,
the old, and the helpless, fled before our victorious
army, which covered itself with glory. I regret to
Say that our troops have also suffered severely, and
that three of my best generals and a number of brave
officers of all ranks have fallen in the action. We are
busily engaged in levying contributions." This is
',he language of robbers on a grand scale; and when

the NAPOLEON of peace contrasts hie reign with the
NAPOLEON of war, when he reflects on the miseries
which Germany and Russia, and Italy and France
suffered during the bloody scenes of NAPOLEON'S
career, and the peace, commercial industry, and vast
national undertakings which now blear his native
country, he may, without vanity, regard his reign as
the most honourable and dignified in the annals
cf France. Happily, the people of England
coincide in his views. The three addresses presented
to him from Portsmouth, Windsor, and London, all
breathe the same sentiments ; and, had he time to re-
ceive addresses from every county, city, town, and
hamlet, of Great Britain and Ireland, they would only
re-echo the cry for peace and the progress of civilisa-
tion. The French people cannot mistake such an
exhibition of public feeling ; neither can they fail to
contrast the reception of Louis PHU.IPPE with that
of another great Potentate who lately visited the
Queen of ENGLAND.

"Few now-a-days," says the Spectator, " will deny
the necessity of placing a civil education within the
reach of all classes who are required to obey the law,
and therefore should be enabled to know what they
are to obey ; few will deny that education adminis-
tered by the Church must be practically denied to
Dissenters ; and therefore, in some shape or other,
education must be attainable without the ecclesiastical
accompaniments. The onus, however, lies on those
who assert that secular and ecclesiastical education
must go together—a task not yet performed." There
is much truth in our weekly Contemporary's re-
mark that a system of popular instruction ad-
ministered by the Church, " must be practically
denied to Dissenters," for it is impossible that Dis-
sent, holding the views it does on the subject of the
Establishment, can ever permit its children to receive
their education at its hands. The two parties do not
merely stand aloof from, but are in direct antagonism
to, each other. The dogmas which orthodoxy clings
to with the most rigid tenacity, are precisely those
which heterodoxy holds in the greatest abhorrence.
The former maintains the expediency of a close al-
liance with the State as being advantageous to the
interests of both; the latter repudiates such alliance
as being fraught with injury to the cause of true re-
ligion, and tending to no worthier or more useful ob-
ject than increasing the influence of priestcraft. Or-
thodoxy, though not absolutely opposed to it, is in many
instances jealous of freedom of opinion and inquiry;
whereas it is in this same freedom that heterodoxy
has its foundations. The one would confine educa-
tion
within narrow limits ; the other would have it
comprehensive in its range, and conducted on enlarged
principles. It is clear, then, that if the Church is to
administer instruction to the masses, Dissent must
keep away from its schools, and either allow its
humbler and poorer children to continue in ignorance,
or else instruct them in institutions of its own. But
as education carried on on this system must be con-
fined, comparatively speaking, to the few, and
cannot possibly embrace the majority of those
who stand in need of it, we see no reason
why the Spectator's judicious view of the ques-
tion should not be adopted, and popular instruction be
afforded " without the ecclesiastical accompaniments."
The experiment is well worth making, and none but
High Church bigots could offer any objection to it ;
but surely it is not the duty of Government to legis-
late solely-in accordance with the prejudices of these
people, who, however noisy and blustering they
may be, constitute, we are willing to believe, but a
small [portion of the community ! The notorious
failure of Sir J. GRAHAM'S Education Bill the year
before last—notwithstanding, as we admitted at the
time, it had some good points in it—must have con-
vinced him that either some such medium plan as our
weekly Contemporary suggests, must be adopted, or
else the great question of national instruction
must be abandoned altogether, and the masses
be left to shift for themselves. But this is
not for an instant to be thought of. If
there be one public necessity more pressing
,than
another—if there be one " great fact" more geneyally
acknowledged than another—it is, that the people
should be put in possession, with as little delay as
possible, of the inestimable blessings of a sound prac-
tical education, adapted to their own particular wants,
and the character of the age in which they live, and
which hundreds of them may, perhaps, at no distant
nessisr-rserefir—Vcr—icrrertfer. —r►scrc • • .

guarantee for national tranquillity as national educa-
tion. Instruct the people, as they have a right to be
instructed, not in slavish accordance with this cr'eetl or
that, but in the comprehensive truths of religion and mo-
rality, and you at once quench the blazing torch of
Swing, and put an end to the midnight excesses of Cap-
thin Rock. Of course, however, the Post is in arms to
resist the Spectator's suggestion ; and in reference to the
Church's claims as sole instructress of the people, says
that the only " education which will make the autho-
rity of the laws respected, will be one which by the
cultivation of the moral faculties, shall induce not
only the knowledge of virtue, but the love of it,
and by the ministration of religion shall rear
a race of loyal citizens, honest men, and faith-
ful Christians." This is perfectly true; but is the
Church the only party capable of educing the moral
faculties of the people, exciting in them a love of
virtue, and making them good citizens and good
Christians ? Cannot Dissent put in practice an
equally valuable system of instruction, and educate
the masses, quite as efficiently as the Church, in the
sublime truths of religion and morality ? We have
no patience with such one-sided bigotry as that ex-
hibited by our morning Contemporary, and feel
assured that it will find an echo in the breasts but of
few, even of his own party readers.

IVe have received Madrid journals of the 4th inst.
Great anxiety prevailed in the capital respecting the
new measures to be proposed by the Government on
the meeting of the Cortes. It was generally believed
that the Cabinet would hang together till that period
at least, and submit to the Chambers a plan for re-
constructing the Constitution, and establishing such
organic laws as might seem advisable. In case the
measures should be rejected they would resign in a
body. The Herald° announces that the conversion
of the Floating Debt into Three per Cent. Stock had
been at last concluded at the rate of 40 per cent.
It was believed that the publication of the two de-
crees for the converson of the Floating Debt and the
convention with the San Fernando Bank, for the pay-
ment of the interests on the Three per Cents., would
take place simultaneously; but the Minister of Fi-
nance had wished to keep the two affairs distinct, in
order to avoid everything that might promote specula-
tion in the public funds.
The Three per Cents. were done at 272, the Five
per Cents. at 202, and the Coupons at 27, at 60 days.

The following telegraphic dispatch announcing the
arrival of the KING of the FRENCH at Windsor
Castle, on Tuesday
.(not Monday, as stated on Fri-
day), appeared in the Paris journals of Thursday :
Calais, 9th of October, Four in the Afternoon.—
' Windsor, Bth, Five in the Afternoon.—The KING
arrived in good health at Windsor at two o'clock.
Prince ALBERT went to Portsmouth, and met the
KING on board the Gomer. The QUEEN received
him at the bottom of the grand staircase of the
Castle. His MAJESTY received from the: population
on the road the most lively and cordial Welcome.' "
" The London papers of Tuesday," says Galignani,
" reached us late this morning (Thursday), the wea-
ther in the Channel on Friday having retarded the ar •
rival of the Calais packet. We subjoin the fullest de-
tails of the arrival of his Majesty Louis PHILIPPE in
England, the fact of which had been already re-
ceived by telegraph. It will be seen that the special
attentions of the KING'S royal hosts, and the reception I
of his MAJESTY by the people, were in every sense
equally worthy the ancient character of England for
hospitality, and of the illustrious monarch upon whom
they were bestowed."
The Journal des Debats has a long and excellent
article in support of the KING'S Government, and
against the war party in France. "We at once
admit," says that journal, " that, if it were possible
that foreign nations could mistake the spirit which
animates the Opposition journals for the expression of
public opinion in France, they must indeed form a
poor opinion of us. They would believe us to be a
quarrelsome, meddling, boasting people, affected with
an incurable Don Quixotism ! All Europe is aware
that France enjoys--thanks to the wisdom of her Go-
vernment—an unheard-of degree of prosperity and of
liberty, of which no other nation affords an example.
Europe well knows that the French Government,
whilst it maintained general peace, never suffered
any injury to be inflicted on our interests or on our

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