The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
G LOBE.—We perceive that Mr. Christie has given
notice of a motion to insert a clause in the Ecclesiastical
Courts Bill, for admitting graduates of all the English
Universities to practice in the Ecclesiastical Courts. We
hope the House of Commons will agree to this reason-
able proposition. It would do something towards lessen-
ing the various mischiefs which the Bill proposes to
inflict on the public, among them, that of allowing
the country practitioner to unite in his single person
the combined characters of proctor and attorney, and
to pocket the costs of the double profession. It has
been found in practice, that a business in common law
and conveyancing, with occasionally a little bankruptcy,
is as much as a country practitioner—deprived as he
is of the opportunity of immediate reference to coun-
sel—can conveniently manage. Although fond of ap-
pending " solicitor" to his name, it is very unusual,
except in the large towns, to practise in that branch
of the law. If, then, a competent knowledge of
the practice and procedure of the Court of Chancery
is found incompatible with a due attention to the tech-
nicalities of bankruptcy and common law, we leave it
to our readers to imagine what a medley of confusion
will arise from this incorporation of ecclesiastical
" quips, quaintnesses, hieroglyphics, and enigmas." It
will be something to alleviate the mischief by a mixture
of gentlemen who have received a liberal education.
Another effect will be, that Dissenters who, on ac-
count of objections which have force with them, may
hereafter find themselves involved in a church-rate suit,
may have their interests represented, if they choose it,
by counsel who have graduated at the London Uni-
versity, and are themselves Dissenters. We do not
consider this of particular importance so far as any
individual contest may be alone concerned. We have
no doubt that the case of a Dissenter is as sedulously
and efficiently advocated by a counsel of the most High
Church principles as it would be by one of his own
views. But it does not end here. It is but reasonable,
it is indeed important to the general well-being and to
the interests of the Establishment itself, that among the
gentlemen who practise in its Courts, should be found a
not inconsiderable section whose personal feelings lead
them to look with jealousy on any procedure which
bears hard on the Dissenters. The Church gains no-
thing by making martyrs. John Thorogood's range
of neat cottages at Chelmsford, built with the proceeds
of a subscription raised by his sympathisers, and,
quaintly enough, called after the churchwardens who
imprisoned him, settles this point. The severity of his
punishment has not more deeply impressed the good
people of Chelmsford, or the generality of the commu •
pity, in favour of the Establishment. We may, there-
fore, take it for granted that the Church will maintain
its ground with more ease to itself, and advantage to the
public, by cultivating peace with the Dissenters, and by
divesting collision, where collision is unavoidable, so
far as possible, of its present irritating character. Now
we all know the influence of the bar upon the adminis-
tration of the law, and even upon legislation. While
the administration of ecclesiastical law is entrusted
to a body, the entire of whom are, if not hostile, at
least alien to the feelings of Dissenters, nothing can
be more certain than that, as against them, much un-
necessary hardship and irritation is unavoidable. When
a Dissenter has pleaded his own cause, he has frequently
damaged it by a woful ignorance of ecclesiastical
practice. Where he has confided it to counsel, however
eminent, the strictly legal points of the case have alOne
been brought before the Court. When the judge has
pronounced sentence it decides against a course of
conduct which the very counsel who defended it
was unable to appreciate or even understand, and
with which, therefore, he could not sympathise.
Few as may he the parties whom defeat leaves satis-
fied with the justice of other courts, it is morally im-
possible that, as things are at present consitituted, a
Dissenter should ever be satisfied with the justice of the
courts ecclesiastical. He looks now to an adverse de-
cision, and his consequent imprisonment, as the last
links in the chain of oppression. His enemies, he thinks,
have then done their worst ; and he naturally resolves
that when that worst is ended, he will do his. Upon
the unhappy effect, as to both parties, we will not com-
ment. W e trust the House of Commons will consent to
the introduction of Mr. Christie's clause into the Bill.
We cannot but believe that the hardships of the existing
law, so far as regards Dissenters, would be mitigated
by it, and we hope ultimately reformed altogether, by
the admission of Dissenters into the ecclesiastical court.
It might produce a series of improvements, like many
of the Chancery orders of the last sixteen years. Pro-
mulged like them, after being subjected to the careful
scrutiny of the leading members of the profession, the
practice would receive many ameliorations, which no
Act of Parliament can be expected to ant. Were the
law thus made certain, rather than harsh, and prompt in
decision rather than oppressively expensive, a different
spirit would speedily be imparted to these contests. The
effect would be similar in kind to that which the cha-
racter of nn eminent minister of the Establishment is
known to have produced—who, for his fervent piety and
a tolerance so ample that he is probably unconscious of
its influence, has been repeatedly characterised as " the
most dangerous enemy with whom Dissent has had to
deal."

STANDARD.—The intelligence brought by the
Queen of the West, which left New York on the 21st
ult., developcs a little more fully the projected policy
of Governor Tyler, in reference to the annexation of
Texas. The President has made, upon the demand of the
senate, a communication, from which it appears that,
anticipating no difficulty at home to the final ratifica-
tion of the late treaty, he had prepared for a war with
Mexico as the immediate consequence of the arrange-
ment, ordering a fleet to the Mexican Gulf, and an army
to the frontier. This is the President's own account of the
affair, but Mr. Tyler must be a very weak man
if it is a true account. None but a very weak man
could so much miscalculate the feelings of the
Senate to say nothing of the interests of the whole re-
public, as to fancy that the treaty would not be ob-
structed; and, under that delusion, to present belligerent
preparations, justifying the obstruction, and making his
government ridiculous. A solution of the affair more
respectful to Mr. Tyler's understanding, if net to his
honesty, is the hypothesis that he sought to provoke
a quarrel with Mexico by martial display,
the effect of which would be to enforce the success of
his • darling scheme of annexation ; for though a
war might not necessarily follow the final rati-
fication of the late treaty, it is very cer-
tain that all parties in the United States
would agree to a hurried ratification, as soon as
they had heard of a single act of hostility on the
part of the Mexicans. Be this, however, as it may,
one fact seems to bo clearly established by
Mr. Tyler's Message, and that is, that whether before
or after the annexation of Texas, a war with Mexico
must accompany that arrangement ; and this war
will be a very serious thing. It is true that there is
apparently no proportion between the respec-
tive powers of the two republics, but when
climate and a difficult country are on the side
of the defenders, these will go a great way
to compensate the preponderance of numbers, and even
of military qualities, on the other side. And then
there is the slave population in the United States ;
and everywhere a slave population is, and ought
to be, the ally of the enemy of the slaveholders.
The contest on the land side would there-
fore be by no means so inevitably favourable
to the United States at first might appear, and though
successful in the end, the United States might find that
they had made but a sort of Algeria conquest—an
earnest of future and more perilous wars with more
formidable opponents. On the side of maritime war,
again, the United States appear to possess an immense
superiority over Mexico, which may be more apparent
than real ; the States themselves, we believe, it was who
first set the example of very liberally lending a national
flag to privateers, and even borrowing the enemy's
own ports to fit out these torments of commerce. It
cannot be forgotten that the so-called American
privateers by. which our commerce suffered most
in the American revolutionary war, were in fact
fitted out in British Torts, and too often manned by
renegade British seamen. Now, the United States must
expect something of the kind in a war with Mexico.
The drab men of Pennsylvania would not scruple a pro.
fitable investment in the plunder of their felbw-citizens,
any more than they would balk at a project for
cheating their kinsmen of England. A war even
with Mexico would, in this way, annihilate the
commerce of the United States ; while Mexico
would all the while become richer and stronger,
both in resources and alliances. The journals of the
United States seem to have a pretty just view of the
necessary effect of this disgraceful scheme of Pre-
sident Tyler, to entrap the commonwealth into a
ruinous war ; and some go so far as to call for his im-
peackment. As to the impeachment, it is a matter
upon which we, as foreigners, have no right
to offer any opinion, further than to remark that the be-
ginning of a course of impeachments is unfortunately
most dangerous in those systems of government where
unfortunately impeachments arc most frequently neces-
sary—namely, in democracies. The case must be a strong
one which authorises unsheathing the sword of justice
against a magistrate anywhere, particularly where the ma-
gistrate's commission is the sole controlling influence; and
yet in democracies, for this very reason, that they are
subject to no rivalships of royal, aristocratical, or other
traditional moral influence, magistrates are most likely to
provoke vindictive justice by abuse of their position.
The inference is, that democracy is a bad form of govern-
ment, that gives birth to dangerous crimes. which itself
makes mote dangerous to punish. These considerations,

however, apart, it is satisfactory to see that the Presi-
dent's warlike and ambitious propensities are not popular
in the States.

TATTERSALL'S.-THIS EVENING.
QUARTER TO Six O'CLOCK.
NORTHUMBERLAND PLATE.
8 to 1 agst Bay 11lomus—taken -
10 to 1 agst The Cure
14 to 1 agst Era
15 to 1 agst Whistle Binkie
GOODWOOD CUP.
5 to 2 agst Alice Hawthorn
ST. LEGER.
7 to 1 agst The Cure
8 to 1 agst Ugly Buck

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Their Lordships assembled at Five o'Clock.
Messengers from the Commons brought up several
Bills.

The Earl of GLENGALL moved for a return of the
number of children under fourteen years of age in the
workhouses in Ireland.--Ordered.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE gave notice that
on Monday he should call the attention of the House to
the subject of the Irish poor law.
•.• _ . _

_
Several petitions lvere presented against the union of
the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor.
The Marquis of NOItMANBY gave notice that, to-
morrow, he should ask whether the report as to the
sanatory condition of the poor would soon be before the
House; and, also, whether it would contain any recom-
mendation or suggestion for the remedy of the evils
which were now complained of with respect to the sana-
tory condition of the poor.
NIGHT POACHING BILL.
On the motion that this Bill do pass,
The Earl of RADNOR said he should continue not
content to the passing of this Bill, as he believed it to be
unnecessary.
Earl FITZHARDINGE supported the Bill. He
denied that poachers were driven to the commission of
the offence of poaching by distress.
The Bill was then passed.
The Copyhold and Customary Tenures Act Amend-
ment Bill was read a second time.
HOLYHEAD RAILWAY WAY.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE said that as the
report respecting the harbour of Holyhead was not yet
beford the House, he would postpone his motion for a
Committee on the- Chester and Holyhead Railway Bill
till the end of the week.

Lord MONTEAGLE thought it was a great hard-
ship upon the promoters of this Bill to be kept in sus-
pense by these repeated postponements. He thought
the Bill ought to pass forthwith.
The Earl of WICKLOW also thought the Bill ought
to pass.
The Earl of DALHOUSIE said it was the intention
of the Government, in case a direct line of communica-
tion between Holyhead and London should be made, to
recommend to Parliament to make a grant for the im-
provement of Holyhead harbour.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE thought the mat-
ter ought to be referred to a Committee before their
Lordships adopted the Bill. He had no wish to prevent
the Bill from passing ; but he thought it right to be
fully considered in its details before it passed.
—(Hoar, hear.) It was essentially necessary that
provision should be made for the formation of a proper
harbour at Holyhead, and also that there should be a
good bridge beside by the Company across the Menai.
Lord DALHOUSIE said that it was not unprece-
dented for Parliament to pass a Bill to enable a railway
company to form an interrupted line, where there were
arrangements in progress for filling up the gaps.
Lord RAYLEIGH said that it was the intention of
the Company to apply to Parliament next year for a Bill
to build a bridge across the Menai.
Lord DALHOUSIE said that her Majesty's Govern-
ment had come to the determination that Holyhead was
the preferable route of communication with Ireland, but
he was not able to say what the expense of making
Holyhead a good harbour might be.
Lord BROUGHAM objected to any infringement
upon the Standing Orders of that House, in respect to
private Bills. He thought that it would be very credit-
able to the other House of Parliament, if that branch of
the Legislature adopted those Standing Orders.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE was most desirous of
improving the means of communication between Great
Britain and Ireland. But he agreed with his Noble and
Learned Friend (Lord Brougham) that it would be highly
inexpedient to give any instructions from the House to a
Committee on a private Bill.—(Hear, hear.)
The Duke of WELLINGTON understood that the
Bill was for a railway to Holyhead, which must be
carried across the Menai Straits, and as that could not
be effected by means of the present bridge, there must
be a new bridge made for the purpose. No new instruc-
tion to the Committee was necessary.—(Hear, hear.)
faThe Marquis of GLANRICARDE said that as the
Bill stood at present there was no objection upon the
company to build the bridge. They were only to carry
the line to the IMenai, and passengers and luggage were
to be conveyed across the Strait in boats.
After a few words from the Bishop of Bangor, Lord
Monteagle, and the Marquis of Clanricarde, the Bill
was read a second time, and ordered to be committed.