The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-16 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Post, speaking on the subject rTf free trade, observes :
" There is some satisfaction in observing, by the declaration of
the Minister, that the principles of free trade, or of buying in
the cheapest market, however enlightened' they may be, are
yet nut, in his opinion, such principles as may be acted upon
under all circumatances. There are, even in his opinion, some
advantages which may be sacrificed by acting upon `those en-
lightened principles.' We confess, however, that between
some of the sentences in the above passage, and the statements
attributed to the Right Hon. the Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, in the debate upon the importation of foreign
cattle, there doe, not seem to us to be that har-.
mony which we could wish to find in the statements of
different members of the same Government. In the
speech on the importation of foreign cattle, it appears to
have been taken for granted by the Right Hots. Member for
Newark, that the importation of fifty thousand head of cattle
from abroad, must necessai4 create an equivalent export trade
of halt a million's worth.. This argument of the Right Hon.
Gentleman is quoted and lauded by the Whigs as an evidence
of very enlightened principles' which the present Government
has been taught by them (the Whigs) to adopt. But if it be
true that the import of foreign cattle must create an equivalent
export trade (the effect of special treaties not having been at
all alluded to in the argument of the Right Hon. the Vice-
President of the Board of Trade), it is also true that the im-
portation of French silks,.and wines, and brandy must create an
equivalent export trade. And if the thing must be so, accord-
ing to the ' enlightened principles' of political economy, what
need then of waiting for treaties to secure this advantage?"
The Times contains the following remarks, on the subject
of the law of evidence :—" With the principles of the English
and Scotch law we most heartily concur. With it, we are
far from wishing to exclude from our courts the evidence of
Jew, Alahometan, or Hindoo. Such an exclusion would be
most unwise and inconsistent: we must use such evidence as
we can get. \'‘' hat we exclude should be the least credible ;
and we will boldly say, that taking, not the very good or the
very bad—with the former of wham oaths are unnecessary, and
with the latter ineffectual—but the man with a low average
morality, with a view to whom especiuliy these obligations are
imposed—there is far iess difference, in point of honesty
and credibility, between the ordinary Christian and the or-
dinary Jew or Mahometan, than may be found nearer
home between one professing Christian and another.
The Atheist—the man who disbelieves the existence
of any Being above himself, and to whom he is responsible
stands on a totally different tooting; and we cordially assent
to the caution which refuses any judicial weight to his state-
ment. To impose an oath on such a man is an obvious farce—
that ceremony applied to him is a confessed nullity—the man
himself will ( for he cannot help himself) tell us that it is so.
And we are certainly slow to think that that sanction which is
plainly necessary to insure truth from the mass of professing
Christians (a fact which is nut less true because it is humi-
liating) can be safely dispensed with in the case of others, be-
cause they have torn themselves free from the authority of
those motives which sway the mass of men to follow truth and
honesty. They are incapable of fulfilling those conditions
which the law exacts as a security for truth ; and they pro-
claim themselves uninfluenced by those great motives, the ad-
mission of which, almest alone, makes other men credible."
The Chronicle comments as follows on the Church-rate
question :—'' Within the last month Church-rates have been
refused by the vestries of Maidstone, Greenwich, Portsea,
Newport (I. W.), Wirksworth, and Rochdale. At the last-
named place the division was 1,000 to 50, a strung vote of cen-
sure en the vicar, who presided, being also carried by the ma-
jority. There has also been debating and polling, though with
a different result, at Brighton and other places. At Leighton
Buzzard the rate was, in consequence of the opposition, su-
perseded by a voluntary subscription. And in Bristol, Here-
ford, Aston, &c., seizures have taken place (a Bible in one
instance), which have occasioned much scandal and bit-
terness. There are also many cases in which legal pro-
ceedings are pending; two were reported in our Monday's
paper, relative to the l arishes of Foster and Brad-
ford ; and societies are formed, as at Aston, to main-
tain the costly strife of law against the authorities, backed by
the parish funds. And all the confusion, of which this is a
specimen, continues to happen years after Sir Robert Peel and
Lord Stanley have described the settlement of the question as
quite necessary, on account of the mischief and desecration
which it generates. The evil is plainly one which will not wear
itself out. It is no temporary fit of Non-conformist pugna-
city. From year to year it endures, and it spreads. It has
raged in seasans of commercial prosperity, and it rages not the
less in this season of depression and calamity. It has held on
through the storms, and through the calms of the political hori-
zon. And for this all-sufEeing reason, that it is a question of
principle. The opposition to church-rates may include many
who join it from their love of cash, or their lack of faith;
others may be actuated simply by the spirit of sectarianism :
but the body • has a firm, solid, and enduring nucleus of men
who act on principle."
The Herald says 7—'6 The House of Commons refused, last
night, by a large majority, to issue a writ for the borough of
Belfast until an inquiry tiad been made by a Committee into
the alleged corrupt compromise by which the last election for
that borough was managed to be voided by the Election Corn.
mittee, to which was referred the petition against Mr. E.
'Cement and Mr. Johnson, and until an investigation into the
state of its constituency had also been made. After the cir-
cumstantial charges made by Mr. O'Connell, and the corro-
boration of that portion which referred to the compromise by
Sir H. W. Barren, it was not possible for the House to issue
the writ without convincing the country of its utter insincerity
in the recently-expressed determination to put a stop to eke-
taral impurity, and representative cot rupt compromises. If
and credit is to be given to the allegations of those two gen-
, 'lenses), a very discreditable compromise in this case has been
rritt red into to defeat the ends of justice. and to control the
Belfast electors in their choice of representatives at the next
election; and the tact that a compromise has been agreed on,
subsequently to, and in defiance of the course the House of
Commons has recently adopted with respect to other alleged
corrupt compromises, shows how inveterate this dangerous
habit has become, and how necessary it is to take the most
decided steps to suppress it. There is, however, we must in
fairness remark, nu charge with respect to the Belfast comproe
mine against Mr.Lmerson Tennent or Mr. Johnson.