The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-21 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Times, alluding to Church Reform, says :
" Among the measures announced in the Speech from
the Throne at the commencement of the last session,
there was one which never saw the light—a proposed
reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Whether any
Bill upon the subject was introduced, we are not sure •
some talk there certainly was of a Bill which had
been prepared in the Government offices, but which,
after vain attempts to reconcile the conflicting views
and interests of different Church authorities in town
and country, was silently abandoned. It is impos-
sible, with our information, to say whether this was
to be regretted or otherwise ; but unless the projected
measure was something very different from any other
scheme of the kind which has been mooted of late
years, we suspect the country has sustained no
loss in its postponement. Of one thing we feel
sure, that before anything really useful and adequate
to the wants of the Church can be done, there must
exist a much stronger feeling as to the magnitude and
delicacy of the question, and a disposition to give it
a much more deliberate and concentrated attention,
in and out of Parliament, than has yet appeared. It
would be better to go on even with the present very
unsatisfactory state of things, than to add to its evils
and perplexities by a crude, rash, superficial, and
ignorant, and perhaps jobbing and secular-minded,
reform. It ought also to be considered, whether it is
either safe in principle or likely to answer any good
purpose, for Parliament (constituted as it is upon a
basis comprehending persons of every denomination,
however hostile to the Church) to legislate upon ques-
tions vitally affecting the Church's spiritual interests,
without taking the sense of the Church herself, re-
presented according to her proper organization, upon
the measures proposed."
• The Herald says :—" Give Mr. Cobden's League
50,0001. and the Corn-laws shall be. abolished ; raise
but Mr. O'Connell's rent other 20,0001. a-year, and
the legislative union between England and Ireland
shall be repealed; pour but a few thousands sterling
into Feargus O'Connor's lap, and the Charter shall
become the law of the land. Who doubts the omni-
potence of money after these fine promises—or that
these great political alchemists would perform their
promises when they have procured pre-payment for
them ? Time was when patriotism shrank from con-
tact with coin ; when national regeneration did not
spring from the power of gold and silver; when great
principles and mighty objects were all-powerful in the
hands of great men—` such things were,' they are
numbered with other departed wonders—regarded as
the curiosities of antiquity—sneered at as Arcadian
simplicities of primitive days—and ridiculed as the
foolish fancies of rude ages. Enlightenment now en-
lists in its service cash; patriotism is based on sub-
scription lists ; political combination is knit together
with golden threads ; leagues are kept alive by
bankers' accounts; and universal suffrage is to be
achieved by a public Joint-stock Agitation Company
with a capital of one million of farthings. A few
years ago knowledge was declared to be all-powerful ;
that which was in the days of the Reform mania uni-
versally received as an apothegetic truth has long
since been pronounced by our political pundits to be
a deceptive fallacy ; our great practical politicians
have now discovered that money only is power. Mr.
Daniel O'Connell first found out the secret."

The following is from the Post :—" The conduct of
the lately-appointed Attorney-General of Ireland, in
declining to call up for judgment two persons con-
victed of seditious libels, has been made the founda-
tion of some very untrue statements, and very unjust
remarks, by the Opposition press. The praise afforded
to the new law officer by the Whigs, for his leniency,
is altogether at the expense of the late Attorney-Ge-
neral, and of the Court before which the offenders.
were convicte.l. The present Attorney-General, it is
said, has taken a more moderate and just view of
the case than what was taken by his predecessor who
tried it.' But how is this made out ? Has he said
the defendants were not guilty of a wicked libel ?
No; but upon the confession of the defendants them-
selves of their guilt, and upon their prayer for mercy,
he has deemed this sufficient, and has not called them
up for judgment. It is asserted that the new Attor-
ney-General has accepted ' a very modified apology'
from the counsel of the convicted libellers. It is not
easy to determine what some persons may look upon
as a very modified apology ; but, to our apprehen-
sion, language could scarcely convey a more complete
acknowledgment of the offence committed, and a more
unqualified appeal for mercy, than the acknowledg-
ment and appeal made by Mr. Holmes on the part of
the defendants."
MONEY-TRADE-COMMERCE.
The sheep and cattle fairs at Carlisle and Penrith
have been well supplied this season, and the number
of sales effected at the former, fully equal those of the
last year.
There has been no improvement in the hosiery
trade at Nottingham during the past week ; the silk
glove branch is greatly depressed ; the cotton glove is
tolerably good. The new American tariff has benefited
Leicester goods,
By an account in another part of The Sun, it ap-
pears, that from the rains and swelling of the sea at
Madeira towards the close of October, upwards of
eight vessels and steamers were placed in situations of
peril. The rivers of the island became so swollen as
to threaten its inundation, and the city of Funchal
was so deluged as to have sustained great damage. By
the 28th ult. this weather had subsided.

NAVAL AND ranaTAß.y.
The late Lord Gort, then Colonel Vereker, com-
manded in the year 1798 the Limerick Militia against
the French, under Humbert, who landed at Killala in
that year. During the skirmishes that ensued at the
village of Coloony, Colonel Vereker was wounded,
and received the thanks of Parliament, being also
permitted to bear the word " Coloony" on his arms.

=TEM/My FIND SCIENTIFIC.
The brightness of the new comet in Draeo has, up
up to the present time, gone on increasing as to its
nucleus, but there has been no increase in its tail.
Its passage to the perihelium will take place in De-
cember ; and it will continue approaching towards
the earth until the 15th instant. From its elements,
it is calculated to be the return of the same comet
seen in China in 1301, it having thus made a travel,
since that time, of more than 500 years.