The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1844.

A meeting of the Conservatives of the county of
Durham was held on Wednesday last at Sunderland.
A morning Contemporary, who gives a somewhat
lengthy account of this meeting, prefaces his report
by a sketch of the past and present condition of Con-
servatism in Durham, from which we gather that it
has long been in the most helpless and hopeless
state it is possible to conceive, devoid of energy—
devoid of tact—devoid of union—devoid, in short, of
every qualification that is requisite to make a party
respectable or influential. For some years, during the
sway of the '\Vhig Administration, it was in a tolerable
state of efficiency; it attended to the register, and main-
tained a spirit of concord and unity that augured well
for the cause which it professed to have so much at heart;
but soon after the accession of the present Ministers
to office, it began to exhibit symptoms of apathy;
instead of being watchful over the interests of—what
it called —the constitutional cause, it became almost in-
different to its duties; for a considerable period, not a
single anniversary meeting was held ; and the absence
of such periodical gatherings had the effect of in-
creasing the supineness which want of action was
naturally engendering in the party. In fact, observes
our Contemporary, it was scarcely known whether a
Conservative association existed or not in the county
of Durham, and questions were even asked as to who
were, and who were not, members of the society.
The cause of this gradual decline in the
power and activity of a once influential
party admits, we think, of a very easy
explanation. It originated, no doubt, in the
dislike with which the Durham Conservatives
regarded the proceedings of Sir ROBERT PEEL and
his subalterns, shortly after their accession to place.
They must have seen that the Ministry was by no
means constant in its adhesion to the principles which
it had professed on the hustings, but was ready to
tack about and make sail in a Whig direction, the
instant opportunity offered. Nothing short of some
such conviction on the part of the Northern Conserva-
tives could have induced them to abandon themselves
to apathy. Our Contemporary, indeed, hints that
this torpor arose from the simple circumstance of the
party reposing confidence in the future from the
success of the past ; but this is a very indifferent way
of accounting for an awkward fact ; it is not when a
party is full of confidence that it is most apt to be
lethargic; success but tends to stimulate it to fur-
ther exertions ; it is when distrust and despondency
seize upon political societies, that the principle of
vitality within them becomes gradually more feeble
and deteriorated ; it is then that they exhibit symp-
toms of disunion and lassitude which ultimately ter-

minate in a complete break-up. And such, we repeat,
was the case with the Conservatives of Durham.
They were active—energetic--decided of will and
perfect in organization, so long as they felt that they
had grounds of confidence ; but the moment they
found the Ministry of their choice—the Ministry
which they had taken such prodigious pains to instal
in office—the moment, we say, they found these
Downing-street squatters—to borrow a phrase from
the back woods vocabulary—evinced symptoms
of a disposition to falsify their Conservative
pledges, their spirits became depressed, sullen-
ness and despondency seized upon them ; and
as an immediate and inevitable consequence, they
sank, as a party, into almost complete insignificence.
They are now trying to pluck up a little courage and
confidence again, but we doubt much whether they
will succeed in regaining a tithe of their lost in-
fluence in the county. Events are against them.
Ministers cannot, even if they would, enforce their
principles to the extent they could desire ; they must,
in spite of themselves, lean to the side of Liberalism ;
and assuredly a conviction of this truth will not
tend to infuse new spirit into Durham Conservatism.
We are by no means sorry to see the low ebb to
which this party is confessedly reduced in one of the
most important of our northern counties. It is a
shuffling, time-serving party, liberal, so far as mere
profession goes, mean and intolerant to a degree in
point of practice, repudiating ultra-Toryism, yet
never unwilling to act in its spirit whenever oppor-
tunity offers, and prevented by nothing but its
apprehensions—which it calls discretion—from in-
flicting a world of mischief on the community. It
is vain to look to Conservatism for any positive, sub-
stantial, public good ; and it is only where he dissents
from the policy of this party and makes a move to-
wards Liberalism, that Sir R. PzsL exhibits himself
as a sagacious, prescient statesman.

A very brief interval has elapsed since we directed
the attention of our readers to one of those unseemly
controversies between an orthodox congregation with
their Puseyite-parson, that the gentle Lord Bishop of
LONDON never interposes in, without furnishing us—
his constant admirers—with new occasions for mar-
velling at his meekness, and for commending his ur-
banity. In the last communication addressed by that
lowly-minded Bishop to the Churchwardens of Ware,
some may fancy, indeed, that they detect the heredi-
tary style of schooling which a pedagogue may be
supposed to have transmitted to a Prelate. But with-
out entering into that question, we would willingly,
if we could, exonerate the Right Reverend Father
from a more grave and unbecoming imputation. It is
said—and we believe it—that his Lordship is a favourer
of the Tractarian doctrines. We do not mean to say
that he upholds the atrocious trumpery which some
of the NEwmast-iac divines have lately been re-pub-
lishing, with the most fulsome of editorial commen-
dations from " Golden Legends," and " Lives of the
Saints." We do not suppose, for a moment, that the
sleek diocesan, who moves between the Palace at
Fulham and the Palace at St. James's—between St.
James's-square and the House of Lords—with all the
precise getting up of an elaborate Abbe, a century ago,
in the salons of Versailles, or the Luxembourg, has
any community of taste with the PALMERS and the
PUSEYS, the WARDS and the NEWMANS, who seem to
insist that their " English Saints," or their Gerfnan
Monks of the twelfth century, must have died
in the odour of sanctity in proportion as their
persons were disgustingly filthy, and their fusty
habits never changed ! But, as we have before
remarked, our Right Reverend CHARLES JAMES
is, in such controversies, ever an interested par-
tisan who has a decided leaning to the universal
Tractarian doctrine of enlarging the temporal,
and multiplying the spiritual, powers of Church-
men—(ranking above curates)—as well as of the
Church. He can away with the mummeries, NOT--
provided they tend, in the words of their rhapsodical
advocate (the Rev. W. G. WARD), "to that sus-
tained and vigorous attack on the principles of the
Reformation" (which he, a minister of the Anglican
Reformed and Established Church, advocates ! 1);
but, provided they tend, as the same Mas-
ter of Arts elsewhere writes (in his "Ideal
of a Christian Church ")—" to the religious carrying
out of those great principles which the Reformation,
denied—obedience and faith." Who can doubt what
the Bishop of LONDON'S notions of "obedience" are,
when he moves the clergy of his diocese to stir up
their flocks three or four times in a year to subscribe
towards building new churches (of which his Lord-
ship "rather" means to pocket the patronage) ? Who
can doubt what the Bishop's version of " faith" is,
when he would persuade all the congregations within
his extensive diocese, and even his quondam friend,
of Bishopsgate Without, that the effectual way te
feed the hungry, intense, starving wretchedness of the
pauperised districts of Spitalfields, is—to subscribe
funds for purchasing and dispensing bread ?—soup ?
—clothing ?—lodging ? No ! but—to build new
churches for them.
We shall not renew here the censure we have so
lately ventured to pass upon a course of Episcopal
policy that, we repeat, is daily making an enormous
sacrifice of high and substantial interest—moral,
social, and religious—for vain forms and empty cere•
monies. Nor is it necessary to enlarge on the gravity
of the offence which a Bishop commits, by upholding
it when its results—not as they are to be inferred
from theoretical reasoning merely, but as they are
practically developed by every day's experience—
clearly are the sowing of disunion and heartburnings
between pastors and their flocks ; and the en-
couragement, nay, the artVcial-forcing, as it were,
of present dissent from the ritual, and final
estrangement from the communion and doctrine of
the Established Church. We have asked whether the
Bishop is prepared to countenance the extension of
Puseyism at the price of the decline of Protestantism ?
And the ultra reverence for, and observance of, obso-
lete directions and formularies—still, indeed, retained
in the Rubric, but distinctly as offensive to the
opinions and feelings of the Church at large, as they
have been foreign to her ritual, rites, and ceremonial
for the last century and a half—this overweening
passion for reviving "things indifferent," simply be-
cause some fanciful preference for the mere pantomime
of a more ancient ritual, we have taken the liberty
to treat as an " idle fooling." We are rejoiced to be
so soon in possession of high Episcopal authority for
these views. It is gratifying to us to have one of the
ablest servants and champions of the Church corro-
borating and strengthening our own unprofessional
impressions on such matters. The late distinguished
Principal of Brazenose, one of the lights of Oxford,
and now Bishop of CHICHESTER, at his Lordship's
primary visitation of his diocese in the cathedral
church of that city on Tuesday last, delivered a
charge, very remarkable in many particulars—excel-
lent in all—and in none more distinct or more sensi-
ble than in that portion which he devoted to the repro-
bation of this Puseyite tampering with the venerable
structure of that Church, which it would unhesitat-
ingly demolish for the sake of planting upon its ruins
a few exploded genuflections, and relighting at the
altar table a few extinguished wax candles ; putting
on a white gown at one portion of the service, or
taking off a black one at another—with other such
worthless trifles. The Bishop of CHICHESTER, we
observe, addresses his clergy in a tone of brotherly
kindness and personal humility, worthy of a pri-
mitive Churchman, and very little, if at all,
marred by that unconscious egotism which in some
other Bishops (nearer "London") is so exceedingly
offensive. He inculcates with eloquence and ear-
nestness the duty of consulting and relieving the wants,
physical as well as moral, of the poor. To this sub-
ject he returns more than once, with increasing force
and emphasis. He warmly enjoins on his hearers the
truly Christian, as well as clerical, duty of aiding,
with sincerity and energy, the diffusion of education
among the lower classes of society ; and he concludes
his animadversions upon the progress of Puseyism in
terms to which it would be as vain as presumptious
in us to attempt to add one word :

" Judging from a review of their progress, as given
by one supposed to be of their number (the Rev. W.
Palmer), one must arrive at the conclusion that those so
long unable to form their own course must be especially
unfitted to guide others in the formation of their theo-
logical opinions. With respect to some usages which
are supposed to take their origin from this school, it is
much to be desired that more correct notions should
prevail, mere especially amongst the laity. Whatever
may have been the object or intention of those writers
of whom we speak in reviving attention to those
matters, the advocates of rubrical observances are
more frequently found in the persons of those who
have no syMpathy with their doctrines or peculiarities.
The laity should be made aware of this fact. At the
same time, I must caution the clergy always to bear in
mind that the edification of God's people is the object of

all their ministrations, and that they will sacrifice the
end to the means if they needlessly offend their congre-
gations in such matters. I will not say that the interests
of religion would not be advanced if our ritual were
brought back to what it formerly was. On the con-
trary, I believe the reverse would be the fact ; but I
certainly am convinced that a minister takes a wrong
and entirely inadequate view of his duty if, by adhering
too strictly to the rubrical directions of the Book of
Common Prayer, he alienates the affection of his con-
gregation. Let him fully and clearly explain its nature
and uses, and so he will win their minds towards him."

Madrid papers of the 17th have been received
Some of them give details of the appointments of
President of the Deputies, formation of Committees,
and other business, which to England, or indeed any
other nation, do not possess any interest. In an as-
sembly so constituted, so determined to go all lengths
with the Government, it is a matter of moonshine
whether Senor IsTußlz or Senor CASTRO Y Oaozco
be President. The Eco del Comercio states that re-
ports were current that a Carlist revolution was
on the point of breaking out at Madrid, and that in
several of the provinces the Government seemed to
be taking precautions against a general rising. Pro-
gresistas seem also disposed to have some amusement
in their peculiar way. What a hopeless country !
Upon the Madrid 'Change on the 17th inst. the
Three per Cents. were done at 26 9-16 at 60 days;
and the Five per Cents. at 20i for the same period.

The French Opposition papers have, for one day at
least, passed over the KING'S visit to England—a
great relief to those readers who are compelled to
attend to their lucubrations—and directed their atten-
tion to affairs of another neighbouring country,
where scenes of no ordinary kind are about to take
place. The Opposition journals of all shades, Re -
publican, Legitimatist, and Christino, have articles on
the Bill presented to the Cortes for Constitutional
reform. The Presse, under the influence of Queen
CHRISTINA, has, of course, been made acquainted for
some time with the proposed changes, and the
National, by some means or other, seems equally
well informed. We infer from this journal that the
DOWAGER QUEEN has done it all. After referring
to the Bill it thus proceeds :—" In two words the
programme of the Bill proclaims for the executive
power an absolute omnipotence ; it asks an assembly
of the Cortes, the produce of corruption and violence,
to absolve the acts of usurpation already executed in
the past, by permitting them to be continued for the
future ; to substitute for public discussion the will of
the Cabinet, for the solemnity of the law the caprice
of the camarilla, for the action of the three powers
the will of a single one. This is the radical destruc-
tion of the representative Government, and a delibe-
rative assembly is going to decree absolutism. And
what absolutism ? That of NARVAEZ, perhaps. Not
even that ; NARVAEZ is an instrument to be broken on
the first caprice. Not of the young QUEEN ? She is
a sick child, incapable of anything but evil sentiments.
It is the absolutism of the wife of Murtoz that is about
to be decreed ! Of that MARIA CHRISTINA,WhO, after
having received in her bed the son of the tobacconist
of Tarancon, gave birth to the first-born of her new
amour, when she was still wearing mourning for her
husband ! The absolutism of this woman, who has
violated all the Spanish laws, in exercising the Re-
gency and guardianship of her daughter, when she
was already married to-the Garde-du-Corps! Of
that woman who, notwithstanding the formal text of
the Constitution, and all the existing legislation,
levied, without having the right, in other words,
robbed the treasury of Spain of thirty millions of
francs, as the unmarried widow of the late KING, and
forty millions taken from the revenues of the Royal
appanage and civil list of the QUEEN ! Absolutism
with the greatest scandal, the most infamous robbery
that can be pointed out in history. But is the abso-
lute power to rest, at least in these sullied hands ?
Who is there who does not know that the wife of
MuNoz, ambitious as she is considered, only executes
the solemn engagements which she has entered into
with the POPE and Don CARLOS ? And see the re-
forms proposed in the Constitution To suppress
first, the principle of the supremacy of the people, to
efface the article ordering the annual convocation of
the Cortes, and, in fine, to get rid of that which im-
poses the obligation of consulting the Cortes on the
QUEEN'S marriage! The undertaking is bold, but it
will not succeed. The Spaniards are neither suffi-
ciently void of civilisation, nor base enough to allow this
interference in their own affairs; and all these con-
quests, in fact, which they have aimed at in obtain-
ing since 1812, to be torn from them with impunity."
The following are the remarks of the Presse :
This dispatch only confirms the news given in all
the Spanish journals that arrived yesterday at Paris.
tt was known beforehand almost officially that when
the Congress was constituted, the President of the
Council was to ascend the tribune and read the reform
project. We have said that this project would have
a double character, political and administrative, and
we have shown the principal points to which it was
to refer. It remains for us to explain some questions,
of detail, which, though less spoken of, are not less
important, and which prove that it is unjustly that
some friends of the Ministry have accused it of re-
maining inactive. The Cabinet, presided over by
General NARVAEZ, has advanced slowly, but it has
advanced. Whilst around it friends and adversaries
were loudly discussing, it was working in silence,
and Spain is about to have the power of judging,
which is worth more—that which speaks or that whic h
acts."

The Legitimatist Quotidienne which is equally dis-
satisfied with the National, but takes consolation from,
the prospects of another Carlist rising, says :
"Our letters from Spain announce that this country'
is touching on a new crisis, and probably a graver one
than any of those which she has passed through these
dozen years. The party placed at the head of affairs by
extraordinary circumstances has just obtained a majority,
either by the electoral inactivity of the opposite parties,
or by the violence and cunning employed against them.
But this party, which is without root in the country,
only maintains itself by the army, which is not itself
proof against a sudden rising on any point of the terri-
tory ; a serious insurrection would shake its discipline,
and would have the effect at least of dividing its forces.
The Progessist or revolutionary party, under the diree-.
don of secret societies, is organised along the whole'
coast from Cadiz to Barcelona ; the insurrectional move-
ments of these two towns would draw with it all the in-
termediate localities. This party possesses some com-
mittees, but very few followers in the interior. If the
Carlist party, on the contrary, has but scattered friends
and little means of action on the coast, it has masses in
its favour in the mountains of Arragon, Navarre, and
Biscay, and very numerous partisans in the provinces of
the interior. These two parties have replaced in the last
two years a great part of the arms and ammunition
which had been taken from them ; they are in a state to
act, and determined to act in concert, although for a dif-
ferent object, well convinced that an isolated action
would be fatal to the party which should attempt it, and
would compromise that which should have abstained.
The Royalists were ready to rise some months back in
the mountains of Catalonia, and the Revolutionists only
waited for the signal to take up arms at the same time
in Barcelona ; a counter-order given to the mountaineers
suspended the common action ; but it is only suspended,
the Government knows it, and henceforward it despairs
of opposing the Revolutionists to the Carlists, and of
other."
down these parties by opposing _ them to each
h

The following are said to be the principal changes
proposed by the NARVAEZ, or rather CHRISTINA
Ministry :—The preamble of the Constitution is to
be cancelled, as no mention is made in it of the royal
power. The crown is to appoint the members of the
Senate for life, as in France. The most important
clause, however, is that which enacts that the offences
committed by the press shall not he submitted to
trial by jury. The article which requires the assem-
bling the Cortes once a year is suppressed, evidently
with a view of suppressing the Cortes altogether.
The clause respecting the QUEEN'S marriage is
annulled, and the Cortes are therefore deprived of the
power granted to them by the Constitution of pre-
venting a marriage which they might consider
dangerous to the country. By another the
QUEEN can leave Spain without the consent
of the Cortes. This is a good beginning, and
when the other changes are accomplished, and '
organic laws made by royal ordinance, France
will have no reason for envying Spain her liberal
institutions. The most painful reflection on this re-
trograde movement is, that the inhabitants of Spain
richly merit their fate. They had the means, as far
as free institutions went, of making their country I
great and peaceful, but their statesmen were eternally
quarrelling with one another, their representatives
made long harangues only from factious or mer- ,
cenary motives • they, in fine, rebelled against
ESFARTERO, and welcomed with enthusiasm the
woman who has destroyed their liberty.
There is no domestic news in the French papers
of the slightest interest.
TILE BOURSE--WEDNESDAY, OCT. 23.
First Highest Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price. Price.
Frollo3:rlVe Per MU llB 25 118 30 • 118 20 118 25

Four-and-a-Half.... 111 70 .• 111 70 .. 111 70 .. 111 70
roars
Three per Cents.— 82 20 82 20 .. 82 15 .. 82 15
Bank of France •• 3055 -.3060 .•3055 ..3060
Laffitte Bank, I,ooof. Sharesll2o ..1120 ..1120 .. 1120
5,000 f. Sharesso42 50 —5045 —5012 50 ..5045
Belgian Fives, 1840 •••• • • • • 1031 • • 1031 • • 1031 • • 1031
1842 •••• •• 1
1051 • 105 1051 .. 1651
Spanish Passive sf •• 5f •• 5f
Active ..
Threes • • •••••• .... 351 • . 351 • • 351 •• 351
Old Deferred • • • 61 .. 61 .• 61 .. 61
Neapolitan • 98 75 98 75 .. 98 65 .. 98 65
Boman . •

•. 915 .. 915
•• 395 .. 395
.. 278 75 .. 287 50
••1035 ..1037 50