The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-22 00:00:00

S'PIRIT OF THE rtriLlC JOURNALS.

The Duke of Dadford has had another paralytic
attack, which took place on Saturday. His Grace
arrived n town on Friday night, from attending a
Meeting of the Bedford Level Csrporation at Ely,
of -which the Duke is the Governor. The attack is
',unposed to have been brought on by his close at-
tendance to business at the Meeting,—Morning
&raid.
Lord Eldon made his great stand last night in
defence of the Test and Corporation Acts. It was
altogether a singular exhibition. The vehemence of
life solemn protestations of attachment to the Con-
stitution in Church and State, as if extorted by a
vivid apprehension that the Church, out of corn-
plaisance to Ministers, was about to commit ajhlo
de at, Would have been irresistibly ludicrous, had it
not been for the feeling of hatred towards every
thing calculated to promote the happiness and pro-
arserity of our fellow-creatures betrayed in almost
every sentence which he uttered._" For the Con-
etitution of the country he \you'd struggle (he said)
hi order to leave it, wheo his days were ettesed—as
they soon would be—as he hoped. to God he should
leave it to posterity to enjoy the blessings that
flowed from it."—We believe it is only in cases
personal to himself that the Noble Lord's emo-
tion finds relief in a flood of tears-. The loss
of the Test and Corporation Acts is a heavy
loss, no doubt; but, judging from the manner
in which the Noble Lord has supported losses
which seemed to afflict him more seriously
(judging from outward signs), we are disposed to
entertain a hope, that he will long outlive this blow
to Church and State. The blows which he aimed
at the Bishop were aimed in good earnest, and were
symptomatic of any thing rather than the indifference
to earthly things which ustrally comes over men,
when preparing to close their account with time;
ao that we should be disposed to infer (toot this cor-
diality, and the studied attempt to phoduce an effect
on his Majesty, by contrasting his situation with
that of his subjects, he was looking to time fot his
consolation for the loss of the bulwarks of t'hurch
and State, rather than to eternity. 'l4e would
take leave to tell their Lordships, that fall persons
living, those who had the guardianship the Church
or England, were the last that slits adopt say
measure tending to re-produce tLe miseries from
which we ware delivered by tee Acts now
proposed to be repealed ; and he would add, ,
that if they shook. the Constitution to the 1
ground, they would look in vain for a restoration of
either the Monarchy or the Church, such as the N-
ihau 'had the happiness to witeess in the reign of
Charles II." 'What a magazine of insurrections is
contained in this one sentence! Of course, he
\visited it to be inferred that the repeal of the Test
and Corporation Acts would tend to bring the King
and the Archbishop of Caetsrbury to the scaffold.
Again—" If those could find out eaiple and suffi-
ient reason for the alienation, who were bound to
preserve the Established Church, b s must only say
that the marsh of intellect, of which so much had of
late been said, had made more progress among others
than in the humble individual who had then the
honour to address their Lordships." But all these
imputations of treachery against the Church were
supported by no reasoning. He neither sheaved that
the Test, and Corporation Acts were of the least
benefit to the Church in the present day; nor that
there was the least probability of their ever being
beneficial. But "it had been his fate to live in peril-
ous times, and he knew by his experience that
it would be better to take precautionary measures
than to trust to a vote when the danger had actually
arrived." So that to guard against the possibility
of a danger which cannot even be imagined, the
whole population of one division of the island, and
half the population of the other, arc to be irritated
by the existence of laws in the Statute Books which
cannot be enforced. And could any thing'be more
lame and miserable, in the way of reasoning, than his
attempt to bolster up the Test and Corporation
Acts, by a reference to the Tests imposed on his
Majesty " Their Lordships would recollect, that
his Majesty on the Throne clime under an obligation
to preserve the Presbyterian Church inviolate; he
also came under a similar obligation as to the Church
of England; and yet thousands of the petitions on
their Lordships' table, said it was a degradation
to take the same test as his Majesty—said it was
a degrading principle to impose tests on them,
when the same tests were imposed on his Ma-
jesty ; and he was obliged to take them be-
fore he could exercise any of his Royal func-
tions. His subjects said that it was a degrada-
tion to take the same tests as their King." The
instances are not parallel. The King swears that
he will uphold the Established Church of. England,
and the Established Church of Scotland, because
the force of the State is intrusted to him to support
and uphold the various establishments of the coun-
try. His' oath to uphold the Established Church of
Scotland never was supposed to import a belief in
the Articles of the Church of Scotland, whereas the
taking of the Sacrament, according to the rites of the
Church of England, by those who conscientiously
disapprove of those rites, is a downright profanation.
The King might swear to uphold an establishment
of Baptists hi the !sale of Man, or Lutherans in
Hanover, or any other religion that might happen
to be in his various possessions, without in the least
compromising his own belief. But no man can par-
ticipate in religious rites of which he disapproves,
without offering violence to his conscience. Lord
Holland exposed his sophistries, and his unfair refer-
ences in an admirable manner. The attempt to COll-
- the subscription to the confession of faith im-
posed by the Presbyterian Church on the teachers in
the Institutions for Education in subordination to the
Church, with the tests imposed in England as a
qualification for civil officers, was truly pettifogging.
Well, it mast be said, if Lord Eldon presents us with
all the mind hitherto arrayed in defence of the Test
and Corporation Acts, there has indeed been a
„arch !—Morning Chronick.
The debate in Committee oo the Corporation and
Test Acts Repeal Bill, in the House of Lords last
-night, was of an extremely animated character, and
most of the Noble Peers who are at all its the habit
of taking an active share in the business of the House
mingled' more or less in it. The chief speakers
were; the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earls of
Eldon and Harrowby, Lords Holland and Ellenbo-
Landaff and of Bath and Wells,
rough, the Bishops of
and the Duke of
Wellington. • Several amend-
in the course of the debate •
menu; were proposed
one to convert the declaration into by
an oath, '
the Earl of Eldon, which was negatived on a divi-
sum by a large majority., The Earl of Winehel-
sea's clause • was also negatived, and every attempt
that tended to define the Greed of the parties
taking office. The Duke of
Wellington, steer-
sag a happy course bitween the apparent, though
we know not intentional, laxity of the declaration
introduced by Mr. Peel, and the over-narrowed
declaration which it was the object of the Earl
of Winchelsea to substitute, moved an
addi-
tion, fur which we take the credit of having pre-
pared our readers, namely, that the party taking
office should make thedeclaration then required of
him, upon Me faith a• Christian. The clause thus
amended, not in wordeanerely, but in truth, was car-
ried without a divisiOn. We can now look en this
Bill, if not with unmixed pleasure, at least with very
different feelings from those with which we regarded
r' it when it was first introduced into Parliament. His
Grace deserves the thanks of all sincere friends of
the Constitution for the most judicions and constitu-
tional course which he has purse, d. His motion may
be considered as the delibera; a and settled judg-
ment of a Ministry in which the country reposes
greater confidence than it has done in any, how_
ever zealous and however talented, that has guided
our Councils for many years past. Mr. Peel's
clause bore evidently the marks rather of a sug-
gestion than of a resolution. It will be recollected
that the Right Hon. Gentleman was not even pre-
pared when he first offered it, with a concocted
form of words. The alteration now made will prove,
when the Bill comes again to the Commons, a fact