The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-03 00:00:00

tritiUn

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1844.

A correspondent of the Preston Chronicle obierves,
in the course of some remarks on the opposition lately
offered by the Bishop of LONDON to Sunday railway
travelling :—" On the last Sabbath about two thou-
sand people went to Fleetwood in third-class car-
riages, and from about twelve to twenty persons
were.: employed in the locomotion of this nu-
merous , party, which is not quite one to a
hundred: I remember some years ago seeing his
Lordship of London, then Bishop of Chester, come to
preach on a Sunday morning at Preston church ; and
though he had only two or three hundred yards to
go, he had his carriage, two_ horses, and two or three
servants employed." This, is a very edifying. remi-
nlsCenec, 'but•one, we fear, that' will not be particu-
laily palateable to the Right Reverend Prelate, whose
great object of late years seems to have been, to
put himself forth to .the world as a model of
apostolical humility. If we may credit the statements
constantly made by the good Bishop in his letters,
sermons,„ and Parliamentary speeches, no one is a
gr.cater friend to the humbler classes of society than
he is—no one has their interests more deeply at heart
—no obe is more amiably solicitous that their corn-
+a frts and their amusements should, on all occasions,
be provided for.
As Sir ROBERT PEEL is a free-trader
" in the abstract," so is the Bishop of LONDON
an apostolical.Prelate "in the abstract." In theory,
his benevolence and forbearance towards his fellow-
cre4ures, especially those of the humbler and poorer
crass, know no bounds,
His love for them is deep
and comprehensive as the ocean; and night and day
—so runs the te-nour of
his numerous sermons'
speeches, &c.—he is unceasingly engaged in schemes
for the furtherance of their temporal and spiritual wel-
fare. -Honest lago, it may be remembered, professed
that he "was nothing if not critical," and in like
manner honest 13LOMFIELD—or " CITARLtS jAmts
LONDON," as he delighteth to in titule himself—pro-
fesses that he is " nothing if not tolerant." Thus is
it with him in theory, but how stands the case as
regards practice ?` Here, the speculative philanthropist
exhibits himself -as the cold, officious, arbitrary
High-Churchman, without one particle of bonhommie
or foibearance in his nature ; and who seems to take
a perverse pleasute in interfering with the harmless
recreations of his humbler fellow-creatures. Are a
party of poor people seen travelling from necessity, or
for amusement, by a railway on the Sabbath, the
Bishop is instantly in arms at this—in his purblind
view of the case—culpable neglect of religion, and
instantly gets up in the House of Lords to denounce,
and, if possible, put a stop to, all Sunday railway tra-
velling! Are a party of toil-worn London artisans, to
whom fresh 'air and healthful exercise are novelties

There is so much of fairness in the following ar-
ticle of Saturday's Journal des Debats, on the French
operations in Morocco, that we willingly transfer it

:o our columns :

" The Chambers were still open when, through the
aggressions of the troops of Abderrhaman, hostilities
broke out with the Moors. The Government was inter-
rogated ; and from the tribune of the two Chambers it
formally declared that it was not its intention to make a
war of conquest upon Morocco. All the world was cog-
nisant of this declaration—it was recorded in all the
journals—by the organs even of the Opposition it was
approved. Our astonishment, therefore, has not been
slight at finding the National, as if it, alone, were igno-
rant of what had been done and acknowledged in the
Chambers, talking of the confidential promises made to
England, and preparing itself, by anticipation, to accuse
the Government of treason and of cowardice, in a case
where Morocco having submitted, and accepted our con-
ditions, France would abandon the ports which the
war would have compelled it to occupy. No ! There
have been no " confidential promises"—there has been a
declaration publicly made ; and this, as coming from a
legal Government, is what we shall consider as a sacred
engagement. No. The Government does not wish to
make conquests and definitive establishments in Mo-
rocco. To dream of enlarging our possessions in Africa,
at a time when Algeria presses already so heavily on our
budget—this would be madness. We occupy the island
of Mogadore. It is the Government—this truckling and
timorous Government—which has issued orders to the
Prince de Joinville to,establish a garrison upon it. We
occupy it, however, but provisionally, as an object of the
war—not as an objact of conquest. Once again, this is
what has been said and acknowledged, already upwards
of a month since, in the presence of the Chambers, in the
face of the country and of all Europe, and with the gene-
ral approbation! And if the National,, almost exclusively
found this policy base and unworthy, why did it require
a month to make such a declaration ?

" The Government feels after the battle of Isly, and
the capture of Mogadore, just what it felt before these
events, it was not fear which extorted from it the declar-
ation, at the commencement of these hostilities, that, be
their result what it might, it did not mean to exact from
Morocco a cession of towns or of territories. The mo-
tives which actuated Government to make this decla-
ration then, still actuate it now. It always had them—it
has them at this moment—it will continue always to have
them. These are—the interest of France—the good
sense which wills not that we should engage, in Africa,
all the forces of our budget, of our army, of our navy.
Our fleets and our soldiers have covered themselves with
glory. The Government expected of them as much.
The war is pushed with vigour; and without wishing to
detract from the Prince de Joinville or the Marshal
8u.0..ad one fraction of the honour which has accrued
to them, we are yet bound to say, that that which they
have done they had their orders to do. They have
nobly executed those instructions. France demands repa-
rations and guarantees : she will obtain them ; and this
last blow assures, perhaps for ever, the security of Alge-
ria. This object is sufficiently great; the Government and
France pursue none other. If the Government after having
recorded at the outbreak of the war a solemn declara-
tion that it had no intentions of territorial aggrandise-
ment, were all at once emboldened by success to set up
other and ulterior pretensions—this would be what we
should term, not simply disloyalty to pledges, but base-
ness and cowardice ; for it might reasonably be ima-
gined that Government had only awaited this success in
order to make such further pretensions. When a
country like France embarks in a war with a country
like Morocco, the issue of that war is no doubtful one.
We shall ask no more at its termination than we did at
its commencement. There was no necessity, therefore,
for the National to affect the mysterious. It was aware
of the intentions of the Government. It knew, as all
the world did, that we do not wage war with a view to
the conquest of Morocco, but only to impose peace, and
to command respect for our presence among a barbarous
people. At any rate, if it be true that the National
does not want collision with England, we are rejoiced to
have apprised him that the moment of that collision has
not yet arrived—God be thanked !"

It is really a gratifying novelty to find in those
American journals which devote themselves to the
discussion of what may be called local politics, any
sound and well reasoned, calm, and dispassionate exa-
mination, of great national questions. On the other
side of the Atlantic party spirit and political excite-
ment attain to such habitual excess, that it is often
impossible to discover a single break in the strain of
exaggeration and declamatory violence with which
the organs of the several parties- in Congress and out
of it advocate their own views, or denounce those
which have been advanced by others. Independently
of the weariness which this monotonous grandilo-
quence inflicts on us who peruse it, a distance' of more
than two thousand miles from the scene of
those events and that business to which it is
addressed, the sensation it produces upon
European readers is one of annoyance rather than
of amusement, and fairly repulses, instead of pro-
voking, curiosity. But there is one eminent excep-
tion to the application of this remark. A State paper,
a letter, or a reported speech from Mr. DANIEL
WEBSTER, is sure to repay the most careful and at-
tentive perusal by its manifestation of many sterling
points of excellence. There is generally a plain, manly,
grave simplicity about them. This strongly con-
trasts with the vicious and inflated style that so largely
pervades the forensic and diplomatic efforts of Ame-
rican statesmen and lawyers. Mr. WEBSTER seems
always in earnest, and, therefore, to appeal rather to
the reason and cool judgment of the public, than the
awakened passions, or the transient influence, of a
faction. He is one of the few public men in the
United States actively engaged in the affairs that form
the current• matters of political controversy, who
never shrink from looking at the truth, whether it
happen to square, or not, with the views and opinions
he has previously advocated. One seems to listen. to
his reasoning without that painful prepossession of
distrust and suspicion which insensibly prejudices us
against others whose habit it is to attempt to make
up for the weakness of their argument, or the feeble-
ness of their cause, by violence of gesticulation and
over-coloured statement. We must also concede to
Mr. WEBSTER'S speeches, for the most part, the merit
of a certain freshness and an argumentative serious-
ness, that are by no means every-day excellencies on
this side of the water or on that.

The address delivered by this gentleman at Spring-
field, on the 9th ultimo, as given in the American
papers, is important at the present juncture on very
many accounts. It is a distinct and stern sentence
.of condemnation on the political profligacy of Mr.
TYLER, and a searching and almost contemp-
tuous exposure of the disqualifications of that
individual's nominee, Mr. POLK, for the office
of President. The reckless violence on the
United States' constitution—the wanton and wicked
perilling of the country's best guarantees for peace, and
the permanency of its institutions, to be found in the
maintenance of its existing relations with this coun-
try and other States—which Mr. TYLER and his cabal
were prepared to commit and to hazard in order to
carry out their schemes for the annexation of Texas
to the United States territories, and the increise and

only fo be enjoyed one day in the seven, seen availing
themselves of their Sabbath leisure, to indulge in an
excursion on the Thames, not only does the Bishop
stand for hours together at the windows of his palace
at Fulham, with his ghostly nose flattened against
the pane, watching the irreligious scamps with looks
of the grimmest displeasure, but he hastens to de-
nounce their guilt in public, and to get such a Bill
passed through Parliament as shall have the effect of
driving every living thing from the river on
Sunday except the fishes, over whom, fortu-
nately, he has no episcopal jurisdiction. In-
finite are the !contrivances to which of late years
this restless, meddlesome, intolerant Prelate has had
recourse, in order to abridge the harmless Sabbath
recreations of the people, and thereby render their
condition still more wretched than it now is. He
does not see that by putting a stop to Sunday railway
travelling, by exorcising the Sunday rural walk, and
shutting up the village ale-house, he drives the poor,
almost as a matter of necessity, to the stifling tavern
coffee-room or the demoralizing gin-palace ; but
imagines no doubt—with the infatuation common
to intolerant priestcraft—that if the poorer classes he
deprived of all recreation on the Sabbath, they will,
as a matter of course, rush in droves to Church, just as
if people could be made pious by Act of Parliament !
Church, indeed, seems to be our excellent Prelate's
sole specific for every species of social or political
evil. He holds " more Church" to be a certain and
universal cure, just as Doctor SANGRADO, in " Gil
Bias," held bleeding and hot water to be an infallible
remedy. Are the operatives in a state of general des-
titution ? Give them "more Church," quoth our
Episcopal Doctor ! Subscriptions are all well enough
in their way, and much may be said in favour
of providing the poor with employment ; but to
provide them with "more Church" is the thing; and full
of this remedial scheme, the ghostly " CHARLES JAMES
LONDON " insists on the erection of upwards of fifty
bran-new churches in his diocese, which he contends
will effectually put an end to all the distresses of his
poorer flock ; though every impartial man sees that
the chief result of the scheme will be, to increase
prodigiously his own power and patronage, though
this of course is a circumstance that has never once
entered into "CHARLES JAMES LONDON'S" calcu-
lation !