The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-30 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three o'Clock.

The Church Extension party is making great
literary exertions, preparatory to a demand on
Parliament for funds to extend the Church. It
is arranging all its forces, drawing up all the
arguments that can be mustered in its favour,
counting all its friends, and, after showing its
whole moral and physical strength, it appeals
earnestly and threateningly to the PREMIER.
He is told that the Church moralises the State ;
that it is the soul of all goodness in society; his
own opinions of the necessity of the State pro-
viding religious instruction for the whole people
are not forgotten, and he is emphatically told
that unless he wish both to break up his
own Administration, and demoralise the
people, he must, as one of the first
measures of next Parliament, propose a
large grant to build more churches and pay
more parsons. At any rate it is plain that the
next onslaught of the Conservatives on the
national purse—for which they live and breathe
—is to be made from the portals of the Church,
with the clergy for leaders.
The time seems favourable for the attainment
of their object. Great evils exist in society, the
origin and cure of which are not exactly known,
but the clergy dogmatically and positively assert
—and in general they are believed—that their
teaching is the only, and that it is a certain, re-
medy. Church Extension is already favoured
by a large portion of well-meaning persons as a
cure for our present social disorders, and it is
very likely that the disputes and discrepancies
of opinion amongst those who recommend
worldly remedies will cause many other well-
meaning, but not strong-minded, persons to
swallow with indifference and submission, if
they have no lively fitith in its effects, the dose
prescribed by the Church Extensionists.
There cannot be, we are afraid, any resistance
on the part of Sir ROBERT PEEL, on account of
the insufficiency of the national resources. The
Income-tax which the clergy have powerfully
helped to recommend to the trader, Kirmer,
and manufacturer, will yield a large surplus,
which can be no better employed, according to
the estimation of the Extensionists, than in show-
ing gratitude to the GREAT GIVER by pro-
viding tin• an increased number of His ministers.
In addition to the Income-tax, also, will Sir R.
PEEL not obtain a great sum from cattle imported,
and has he not got most unexpectedly a full
n•tillion sterling 'from the bread of the people ?
His Corn-law, in conjunction with the early
harvest, has been productive of revenue, if of
nothing else. Tu carry on war, or to build
palaces with the produce of a tax on food, might
be unseemly, but the end of
.building a church
might hallow the means,.and the. greater the
sacrifice of the people, the more sweetly might
smell the incense of new churches, and the
• prayers of a much enlarged hierarchy. In the
present temper of the public, and in the present
flourishing condition of the revenue, we think it
not unlikely that the Church Extensionisis will
succeed.

And why should they not? The clergy arc:
generally spoken of as indispensable to society ;
they are generally idolised ; and we can scarcely
conceive any thing,which they may demand, as es-
sential to the performance of their duty, which
those who idolise them must not be ready to
grant. We think that they may succeed, and
we express our fears, to put those on their guard
who, differing from the Extensionists, feel
bound to resist them. Their exertions must be
met by corresponding exertions—not to sub 7
stitute something else for Church Exten
Sion, be it eatication, or new sanitary re-
gulations, or a sharper police, but to dis-
prove the asserted usefulness of the Church
Extension, and to establish the insolent arrogance
of those who, after much experience of the in-
efficiency of the Church, urge her claims now as
if she had never been tried and found wanting.
We have, in fact, already too much Church, and
too much of the priesthood, and to add to their
wealth, power, and numbers, by taking a single
sixpence by taxes from the industrious classes,
would only hasten and embitter the quarrels
which are impending over the State.

Flogging in the Royal Navy, and other cruel-
ties inflicted on our seamen, often for the most
venial offences, have long been a reproach to the
country. The system was a disgrace to humanity,
ai.d, like all other acts of injustice, recoiled upon
the oppressors. Some of the best of our sailors
fled to the United States, and either engaged in
the merchant service, or enlisted in the navy to
fight against their own countrymen. Since the
public voice, and the Press, began to denounce
the cruel and wretched policy of our rulers, the
evil has been greatly abated, personal punishment
is inflicted with less severity, and greaterattention
is paid to the health and comfort of the men. It
appears, however, by recent trials and convic-
tions before the Magistrates, thatithe Royal Navy
is mot the only department where these brutal
exhibitions take place, and that similar atrocities,
not sanctioned by law, or any investigation by
the officers, are constantly committed on board
ships engaged in the merchant service. Not a
week passes without several charges of this kind
being brought before the Magistrate at Thames-
street Police-court, and, disgraceful and inhuman
as flogging is, that mode of punishment is even
surpassed by the violent and barbarous con-
duct of petty officers and captains of ships.
They generally inflict punishment when in a
passion, strike their victims with some dangerous
weapon, the first generally they can lay their
hands on, and in many instances the unfortunate
sufferers die in consequence before they reach
their native country. Some legislative enactment
1 is required to put an end to this system of
1 tyranny. The law as it exists certainly provides
some remedy, but unfortunately the Judges look
upon the authority claimed by commanders of
vessels with such respect, and impress upon
Juries the danzers of disobeying orders, however
harsh and unwarrantable, that a lenient
verdict is often returned, and a still more
lenient punishment is inflicted by the
Judge. Two remarkable instances of this
bias have lately occurred. A respectable
tradesman, who was convicted of some trifling
assault on a policeman, if assault it could be
called, when he was not the aggressor, was sen-
tenced to work for twelve mouths on the tread-
mill; while the captain of a vessel, who had com-
mitted cruelties which led to the death of one of
his men, was sentenced to six months' imprison-
ment and hard labour. This is an absolute per-
version ofj.tstice in favour of a particular class.
If deeds of this kind were punished as they
deserve, banishment for life, or for a cer-
tain number of years, would soon put an
end to the system. It has reached such
a pitch that even the Police-Magistrates
cry out against it, and seem to consider the law
insufficient to protect the weaker party. On
hearing two charges made by sailors against
a mate and a commander yesterday, Mr. BAL-
LANTINE made the following remarks, which we
trust will attract the attention of the Govern-

ine t

lie heard of these things almost daily, and the
tyranny and cruelty of those encrusted with a little
power on board ship, and who did not know how to
-use it, either drove seamen to make resistance, which
was mutiny, or else to leave the ship and forfeit their
wages. If the law was not sufficient to protect sea-
men and boys from such outrages as theses other and