The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-14 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1844.

The House of Lords did not sit yesterday.
Li the Commons, Mr. THORNELY presented peti-
titions from the carriers of Wolverhampton, Bilston,
and other places, against the monopoly of railways.
The SPEAKER informed the House that the agents
for the petition against the return of Mr. BRUGES for
Devizes, did not intend to prosecute it.
The second reading of the Arches' Court Bill was
postponed for a fortnight.
On the Order of the Day for the second reading of
the Commons Inclosure Act, Mr. S. CRAWFORD
Inoreti that it be read that day six months. The Go-
•vernment, he said, had no just defence for this at-
tempt to violate the rights of the future poor of the
country, nor fasten upon the country the expenses of
this violation.

Colonel SIBTHORP seconded the amendment, be-
cause in the Bill of the Noble Lord he could see no-
thing but a great wrong to the poor, a vast expense
for secretaries, clerks, attorneys, and 140 clauses
which it was difficult to understand. He objected
also to the powers to be given to the lords of the
manor. He was a lord of the manor, but would scorn
to accept a bonus upon such terms. The speech of
the Gallant Colonel was brief, but it contained much
good sense, and expressed just sympathy for the poor,
who were entirely at the mercy of the rich.
Several Members said they would vote for the se •
cond reading, in order that they might know what
were the real objects ( f the Bill.

Mr. AGLIONBY said there was not a clause in this
Bill which did not give more protection to the poor
than any Inclosure Bill which had yet passed. So
that if every Inclosure Bill had robbed the poor
(which is near the truth), the great merit of this Bill
is, that it is not quite so bad as its predecessors.
Mr. HUME was decidedly opposed to the Bill. It
was a Bill to contract the recreations and enjoyments
of the poor.
Sir ROBERT PEEL concurred in many of the ob-
servations of Mr. HUME, and thought the House
should look with great jealousy on such a project.
In fact, no one spoke seriously in favour of the Bill,
and on a division it was allowed to be read a second
time, rather to see what its nature was than to sanc-
tion its object. On a division there were for the se-
cond reading 70, and against it 23.
After some other business, of no importance, the
House adjourned at Nine o'clock.

The few sentences uttered by the Bishop of PETER-
Boeotian, on Monday, relative to the control which
Bishops have over their clergy, afford a miserable picture
of the English Church. The advocates of the Episco-
pal system contend that a Church without a Bishop is
not entitled to the name ; that the Scotch Presbyterians
and the Swiss Calvinists, being out of the pale
of the apostolical succession, are little better than
heathens and infidels ; and that a dignitary with
lawn sleeves, and a mitre and a crosier for his crest, is
absolutely necessary to prevent dissensions in
the
flack, and compel the shepherds to do their duty.
Bishops we have always regarded as the most useless
members of the Church visible, and as mere drones in
the ecclesiastical community, who live on the pub-
lic bounty, without rendering any service for their
vast incomes, and their still more vast patronage.
The present state of the Church, including
the commotions caused by the Puseyites, and the
gross dereliction of duty by the inferior clergy, which
are of such frequent occurrence, and whieh these
ecclesiastical superintendents cannot counteract, is the
best proof of the fact. Immoralities of the most offen-
sive description cannot be seen by the Bishop, if they
are of two years standing, or if they have been com-
mitted out of his diocese. And, even if they have
been committed within that time, and in that locality,
an enormous expense must be incurred, and many years
of litigation intervene, before the culprit can be visited
with anything like condign punishment. The whole
system
is a mockery of religion. The priests, who at
one time were all powerful, with the concurrence of
the lay Lords, equally interested in such abuses, made
laws only to screen their own class. They had a fellow-
feeling for one another, and the curate, and the rector,
and the archdeacon, and bishop, laid their heads
together, to get the greatest amount of public
money, and the least amount of public punish-
•reut -for offences against the laws of GOD and
man. Yet this is the Church that claims the privilege
of .being the censor and teacher of the people, that
would set itself above the State, and be governed only by
laws which it impiously says arc of divine authority.
Let us look at this wealthy Church in another point
rif view. It was formed ostensibly for the pur-
pose of teaching the people. The Bishops call
themselves the successors of the Apostles, who
went about teaching and preaching, and work-
ing, too, for their daily bread. On what point
is there the slightest resemblance ? Instead of
teaching the people, the Episcopal Bench throw every
obstacle in the way of useful instruction ; and the
consequence is that our gaols are crowded with the
=rot tunat e victims of ignorance, and the calendars

of every assize exhibit long lists of men, women,
and children, under the benign influences of the
"Poor Man's Church," who cannot even read. Many of
them have never heard of the most sacred names in the
Scriptures, except when pronounced in blasphemous
oaths ; they know no distinctions between right and
wrong ; they are brought up and die as the beasts that
perish ; while the men, that should instruct them in the
ways of righteousness, are rioting in wealth, and using
that wealth to obstruct the purposes for which they
were appointed. " Out of their own mouths they are
condemned."

The demonstration made on Tuesday at Covent-garden
Theatre, is an event of no ordinary occurrence, and
cannot fail to be attended by important results. The
object of the meeting was ostensibly to do honour to Mr.
O'CONNELL, for the great services he has rendered to his
country during a long and actibe life, and especially to
express public sympathy for his conviction, obtained by
means which neither English Judges nor English juries
would sanction. These were the principal causes which
collected such a vast multitude of persons, both in the
middle and the higher ranks of life; but even these would
not account for the hearty enthusiasm and the boisterous
applause which welcomed the long-tried friend of Ire-
land. It was the wrongs of an oppressed, a gallant, and
a generous nation, that moved the sympathies of English-
men, and, we rejoice to add, Englishwomen too ; it was
the recollection that a country, which has produced some
of the greatest men of the age, which has lavishly shed
the blood of her people in avenging English wrongs, and
maintaining the glory of Britain in every quarter of the
globe, was, notwithstanding all her great services in the
common cause, still treated as an outcast and an alien,
and prohibited by a dominant party from partaking in
all the rights and privileges to which they have the same
indubitable claims with the rest of their countrymen.
This was the mainspring of the vast and glorious move-
ment which will spread joy throughout Ireland, make
a deep impression upon foreign States, and ulti-
mately lead to measures which neither religious bi-
gotry nor selfish class legislation can long gainsay.
Mr. O'CONNELL justly said he did not accept the high
honour conferred on him for the humble services he had
performed, he accepted it in behalf of his afflicted coun •
trymen, who had long struggled for their liberty, and
who were determined, as one man, to obtain it, but with-
out shedding a drop of human blood; and they will ob-
tain it, when Englishmen and Scotchmen join them with
a resolution like that displayed on Tuesday. Let not Mr.
O'CONNELL and his countrymen despair. They have
with them all the good and not a few of the great men
of this country. They have what is more, a just cause—
a sacred cause, and though their freedom by the in-
scrutable decrees of PROVIDENCE has been long delayed,
the dawn of liberty has at last burst forth, and ere. long
will reach the meridian day. Let them persevere
in the same peaceable course, and before two years
elapse the cry of " Justice to Ireland" will be re-echoed
throughout every part of her MAJESTY'S dominions, and
our beloved SOVEREIGN will obtain the wish dearest to
her heart—the reconciliation of her loyal Irish subjects
—the cordial and complete union of two countries that
can be separated only by the destruction of both.

Mr. ConnEN brought forward his motion on Tuesday
in the House of Commons for a Select Committee to
inquire into the effects of protective duties on imports
on the interest of the tenant-farmers and farm-
labourers. His object, he said, in introducing this
motion, was to show that protection, as it is called,
instead of being beneficial, was in reality injurious to
those who imagined that they were gainers by it, and
this he was fully prepared to demonstrate on the evi-
dence of tenant-farmers themselves. The Member for
Stockport is a close and searching reasoner, who wastes
no time in superfluous declamation, or in conjuring up
phantoms—as Tom Thumb did giants—for the purpose of
battling with, and overthrowing, them ; and we
know not that he ever exhibited his superior
argumentative powers to greater advantage than
he did last night. Fact after fact, each more
striking—each more pungent than its predecessor—
was poured forth with a profusion that seemed inex-
haustible ; and the inferences deduced from these stub-
born facts were such as could only have been gainsayed
by men whose inveterate prejudices blocked up all the
avenues to reason. Every prediction, observed Mr.
COBDEN, that was now uttered with regard to corn, had
been previously uttered by the Protectionists with re-
gard to wooL " But what was the result ?" asked the
Hon. Member. " Did they lose all their sheep walks ?
Had they no more mutton ? Were there no more sheep-
cots ? So far from this being the case, when wool was at
the highest price, the largest quantity had been
imported, and when it was at the lowest price, then the
smallest quantity had been imported." Mr. GLADSTONE
made an attempt to answer Mr. COBDEN'S nervous
practical reasonings ; but acute, and skilful debater as
he is, the task was too much for him. In some portions
of his reply he gave us the idea of a man who was
placed in a false position, and was speaking against his
own internal convictions ; and this gave a certain vague-
ness and feebleness to his statements and hypotheses,
which are by no means of common occurrence in his
Parliamentary speeches. How puerile was his objection
to the appointment of a Committee, on the score that
it would unsettle the minds of the people, and
paralyse those departments of trade and revenue
to which its • inquiries had reference ! Precisely
the same objection might be urged to the Irish
Landlord-and-Tenant Commission, or any other great
public inquiry. Nothing can tend more thoroughly to
unsettle the minds of both landlords and tenants in Ire-
land than the investigation now in progress ; but who
denies that it is called for—who denies that it is one of
paramount necessity ? There never yet was a Committee
appointed for a public object that the minds of some
classes were not unsettled by it ,• yet Government has
never been in the habit of allowing this consideration to
stand in their way, when once they have decided on its
appointment. Now, however, when it happens to serve
their turn, it is brought in without the slightest hesita-
tion. In the course of the evening, by way of giving relief
to the debate, and infusing into it a little sprinkling of
Attic salt, Colonel SIBTHORP rose, and with that bril-
liant wit which is ever at his command, cracked not less
than three jokes consecutively, on the subject of Mr.
ConnEri and his white wand, as steward of the O'CON-
NELL dinner. The House laughed, but whether with
the Gallant Colonel, or at him, we do not pretend to de-
termine ; enough to say it laughed, and that the Mem-
ber for Lincoln triumphantly succeeded in his ambitious
efforts to excite the risible faculties of his audience. In
the midst of much that captious critics might call irrelevant,
one fact of importance was elicited in the course of his
speech—and that fact is, that he never reads the Anti-
Corn-law League Circular I He scorns even to give
house-room to such a revolutionary, atheistical docu-
ment ! This, we repeat, is a fact of moment ; and if t
do not give an awful shock to the patriotic sensibilities
of the Member for Stockport, it will at least oc-
casion him some moments of uneasy meditation.
But we are not without a longing hope that the Gallant
Colonel—whom, after all, we respect for his frank and
manly plain-speaking, however, we may smile at his
political heresies—will relax in his present inveteracy of
purpose ; read the obnoxious Circular with avidity, and,
like another NICOMEDUS, sit reverently at the feet of
that instructive GANALtzL, the Anti-Corn-law League.

Few of our readers can have forgotten the melancholy
circumstances of the duel which took place, in the be-
ginning of July last, between the late Lieutenant-
Colonel FAWCETT and Lieutenant MUNRO of the Blues.
It will be recollected that the combatants stood in the
relation of brothers-in.law to each other ; that Lieut.-
Colonel FAWCETT was an officer of great experience
signa
and
on thei coast
his of China n
the highest reputation, and had then but recently
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from the humblest ranks of his profession --and, we
believe, in his own very distinguished regiment--
o El
3.r.
honourable rank which he held in it, at the
by ti oc to
of
theh'l•ls.
fatal rencontre with Lieutenant-Colonel F
The latter fell by the first—perhaps,theAw n
shot which was fired. Groat blame (we fear, it- -;
impossible to deny) attaches to those who had, in
the first place, to determine upon the character of the
circumstances under which their opinions were solicited,
primarily, as advisers, and their attendance on the
ground, subsequently, as seconds ; great blame, both in
the one capacity and the other. Before the principals
went out, these gentlemen appear to have treated the
affair without any reference to its own very special cir-
cumstances—and still less, as attaching its due degree of
weight and importance to the near affinity of their prin-
cipals, who had married sisters. After the principals
had met, the wounded and dying man was left, if we re-
member rightly, unattended to, and unwatched, except
by the medical officer who had been brought to the field
by Lieutenant Musato. The seconds had precipitately
escaped. Here, of course, our retrospect of the facts
of the duel must cease ; because nothing further has
been elicited in any legal proceedings, through which
the public have yet had cognisance of that melan-
choly transaction. But we have enough before us
to judge of the merits of the discussion which took
place, last night, in the House of Commons, on the mo-
tion of Captain BERNAL, "for the production of a copy
of any correspondence respecting the refusal of the War-
office to allow a pension to Mrs. FAWCETT," the widow
of the unfortunate officer who perished in the duel. Azi

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