The Sun.
London, England, 1827-03-29 00:00:00

stances of a personal nature, which estranged
the Court from one or two chieftains of their
Aristocracy, and from as many of their most
efficient members in the House of Commons,
are traceable by the most ordinary observer
down to the present period. The letter of our cor-
respondent accuses the " new or liberal Opposition,"
with their plausible but useless abstractions, and
their perverseness on many legislative questions, of
having much contributed to paralyze the steady
force of the colleetive Opposition ; and we believe
that, reasoning on his own principles, this gentleman
is in the right. To arrive at a given poiut, where
the whole road is occupied and disputed inch by
inch, the impulse forward must be given, and unin-
terruptedly supported, by a powerful and simul-
taneous effort. He who attempts a practical Par-
liamentary opposition on any other datum hut that,
will only incur the derision of the Government, and
lose the confidence of the people. Could the
actual advisers of the King, if he has any, have
dared to demonstrate to all the world, how cum-
bersome and useless are those paraphernalia of a
Cabinet which have hitherto been dwelt upon as
of the essence of the State, if there had existed
within the walla of Parliament a real vigorous
Opposition ? Could the Councillors about or be-
hind the Throne have encouraged an English Sove-
reign to overlook the expectations of his 'people, no
less than their interests, by leaving his Government
without a head; and the Ministerial benches in both
Houses without one official person responsible for a
direct answer to the most simple interrogatory,
touching the affairs of England, foreign or domestic,
if even the semblance of what was once an English
Opposition had sat upon the antagonist benches ?
This is a grievance -to the public, in our opinion--a
mortification, which is usually more painful still—
and it ought to be, but we fear it will not yet be, a
warning to those amongst whom are to be found the
inert, though not extinguished, elements of a strong
defensive league against Ministers, to draw such ele-
ments into immediate life. We are not actuated
by party feelings in thus recommending and
urging the revival of party power. It has never
been our profession or design to attach our-
!elves tO any interest bat that of Vlif nation itself ; party has
and (eight to hare its organs—but it shall not enlist its in
the cause. The great body of Englishmen who are inde-
pendent of all party engagements, are merely entitled to
their organs Veewise—and theirs is the service in which
we reckon it the honour of the Times journal to have be-
come distiuguiehod, hy no niean subserviency, no selfish
compromise, and no unmanly or inconsistent concession. It
is, therefore, on our part, a disinterested counsel, offered
in all sincerity to party men throughout the kingdom, to
push hard for a re-establishment of a bold and active op-
position in the Houses of Lords and Commons. Time
country demand it of them. It is tree that the opinion of
the people out of doors has gained incalculably iu weight and
influence, through the increased facilities for general educa-
tion, the accumulation of numbers under the manufactur-
ing system, and the improved and multiplied energies of
the press, which invites, concentrates, and refracts over
the world, the beams of a new created intelligence. But
this pure and mighty power, though finally resistless, is
iLapplicable to certain objects. A Court crisis like the
present, would best be disposed of by a more compact and
manageable agency—a sharp debate, amid formidable divi-
sion, would tell upon the battlements of Windsor with
fifty times the immediate eili2ct of a declaration of opinion
by even half the nation, which it must take mouths to col-
lect and exhibit in a tangible form. In the mean time
opportunities pass away, and instead of a good being ac-
complished, a positive mischief may he perpetrated, which
50 succeeding years, and if SO, an hundred will not suffice
6 CO cure..---/ticf.

It is instructive in the extreme to observe how
differently the same men reason in cases in which
their passions are concerned, and in those in
which they are not influenced by them. Thus,
for instance, when the subject of the burning of
Hindoo widows was yesterday discussed at the
India House—a subject respecting which there
cannot be two opinions—the general feeling of
the speakers seemed to be, that prejudices of all
sorts, and more especially prejudices connected
with religion, could not be directly attacked with
advantage, and that the only effectual manner of
combatting them, was to commence with the
communication of instruction, to prepare the

mind for the process by which alone they can be
readied. " With reference (said Major Carnac)
to a Legislative interdiction of a custom which
has prevailed for ages, it is my mature opinion,
that it would he calculated to increase the evil of

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self-immolation,instead of correcting it. . . .
In a political point of view, it may be made the
instrument of this representation of our views,
as to the religious propensities of the natives,
and derange and obstruct those great principles
of improvement which are happily making such
rapid advances in our cultivation of a closer in-
fluence with our native fellow-subsets, and in
the means provided for the diffusion of educa-
tion." Colonel Stanhope observed, that " all
religions, in their progress, were attended with
superstition," and in an amendment to the mo-
tion, statad, that " the only safe means of pro-
moting among the Hindoos the pure worship of
God, and preventing the burning of widows,
&c. was to he found in virtuous education and
free discussion." The Chairman, Sir G. A.
Robinson, also observed, that, " for his own
part, he thought all prospect of correcting these
barbarous practices was hopeless, until education
was sufficiently diffused among the natives to
make them duly and sensibly impressed with
the horror of these practices, which they re-
garded as sacred ceremonies." This was the pre-
vailing way of thinking in the Court of Proprie-
tors. There can be no question that it is founded
lin good sense. We must form the mind before
we calculate on the due exercise of its powers. And if
we wish to be successful, we must avoid as much
as possible arming prejudicee against the attempt to
communicate instruction. In India, the English act
as rational beings; in Ireland, they choose to be
hoodwinked. The same principles, however, are
applicable to both countries. If we wish to im-
prove the Irish, it is obvious that we should avoid
es much as possible arraying the prejudices of those
whom we wish to instruct against us. By instruct-
ing the Irish, we shall find it much easier to reason
satisfactorily with them respecting religion, than if
they remain imperfectly instructed. We find for
instance, in the present day, that there is no com-
mon character applicable to Catholic nations, but
that it varies with the degree of civilization, and
the progress of education. Thus, for instance, in
South America, according to the valuable suppress-
ed Spanish work of Ulm., just published by Mr.
Barry, we find that the Priests were everywhere
the most profligate of the population, that the Con-
vents were all brothels, in which the townspeople,
male and female, assembled to patticipate in dances,
compared with which, the dances of the performers
in Egypt are decorous ; and that he was reckoned a
virtuous Ecclesiastic who only maintained one con-
cubine. In Europe, we no where see this shameless-
ness in the Gala& Clergy ; but when we compare
the Spanish Clergy with the French, we find the
former loose in their lives, and lax in their princi-
ples, compared with the French Clergy, who have
always been distinguished (we speak of the body of
the Clergy, and not of Courtiers) for the severity of
their principles. Let any man compare the Spanish
casuists with the French or German, and he will
see that the former exercise their ingenuity chiefly
in affording facilities for evading the rules of mo-
rality, while the great object of the latter is to en-
force a pure morality.. No Protestant critics are
half so severe on the Spaniards and Portuguese, as
the French missionaries, as Father Labat for in-
stance. We find Protestant nations not only dif-
fering materially in character from each other, but
the same nation differing materially from itself in
the course of a few years. Religious improvement
necessarily follows in the train of mental -cultivation.
If our object then wert to improve the Irish, we
t