The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-07 00:00:00

P'OI3I.IC OPINION.

The Times makes the following comments on
the present position of the Church of England :
"We see daily, and we rejoice to, see, signs
of increasing power, and increasing conscious-
ness :of power, in the Church of England. 'We
do not speak of temporal or political, but 'of moral
power—increased ability and willingness on the part
of the Church and her rulers to carry out and to dis-
charge to their legitimate extent the duties of spiri-
tual government and spiritual guidance which are con-
fided to her. Not only is she labouring everywhere,
with a zeal and success which would have been ridi-
culed as impossibilities a few years ago, to supply by
her own unaided resources the wants of that vast por-
tion of the people who are destitute of the means of
instruction and the opportunities of worship, but a
new life is gradually developing itself in her own in-
ward organic system, of which the importance can-
not be over-estimated. Politically speaking (though
it would be the worst sort of affectation to deal with
this subject as if we regarded it from a merely poli-
tical point of view), it is of incalculable importance
at the present moment that the Church should act
with vigour, 'energy, and union. She is the only
power in the State which can deal with Chartism, or
counteract the evil effect of those bastard, truth-
despising, pride-fostering systems of " education "
' with which the liberalism of the present day sup-
poses that the lower orders can be made virtuous.
But 'for her, the State; which seems to have already
lost the power of offering resistance to these false
principles, might soon be disabled from making any
effectual opposition to their consequences. And
though she may be aided by the State to provide her-
self, more speedily than she otherwise could, with
the outward appliances necessary to give due effect to
her influence,, all this will be of little avail, unless
she bring a spirit to the work which the State mtiph
needs to receive, but can never give."
We `quote the following observations from the
Post :—" If our memory serve us faithfully, the
Morning Post was the first English journal that
warned the manufacturers of this country of what
was brewing on the other side of the Atlantic in rela-
tion.to the duties on wrought goods exported from
England to the United States. It was not our fault
if folks at home were not prepared for the sudden in-
crease of duties which has followed the expiration of
Mr. Clay's Compromise Act ; for, over and over again,
we have been at pains to lay before the public the
true state of facts as regarded the respective posi-
tions of the protective and the anti-protective par-
ties in the States. We did not deny that the free-
traders were numerous and influential, but we knew
that their opponents were not by any means weak ;
and a careful examination of the financial embarrass-
ments of the Republic led us to the confident expecta-
tion that, on the whole, the balance of influence
would, for the present at least, incline decisively
towards the opinions of the latter. The blow has
come—it was not averted by the prodigious conces-
sions made by Great Britain in favour of American
produce. Under the new scale of duties, English
manufactures, if we are to credit the representations
of many persons connected with the American trade,
will be virtually excluded. This view, we believe, is
much exaggerated. But no doubt can exist that a
serious check will be experienced by our manufactur-
ers, and that the export trade in hardware, cotton
goods, &c., will be much cramped and injured."
The Chronicle, alluding to the Form of Thanks-
giving for the late abundant harvest, says :—" It has
been discovered of late that churches are desecrated by
parish meetings and by musical festivals. Neither
politics nor art are deemed religious enough for the
sanctity of the buildings : and yet the love of political
liberty, and its assertion, though on the lowest arena
provided by the Constitution, may lay some claim to,
the rank of a moral and religious principle. And
the sublime compositions of Handel and Haydn, of
Spohr and Mendelssohn, have something in them
that tends to raise the soul towards the great source
of its being. The fastidiousness that finds desecration
here, surely should not tolerate the dirtiness or the dull-
ness that eliminates the item of cheapness from a public
thanksgiving for the harvest. If not for its conse-
quent cheapness, what is there, in a plentiful crop of
corn, for which the great body of the people should
be thankful ? If the cheapness do not result, or be
not expected and intended to result, why thank Pre.
vidence at all ? Why attempt, the shabby compro-
mise of cheapness omitted with thankfulness expressed,
and thus send devotion into the Creator's presence,
halting between the feelings of the monopolist few
and the suffering many, and worshipping with the
voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau ? These tricky
compromises are characteristic 'of the man who now
holds the reins of political authority, but we do not
want the spirit of Peel in the prayers of the Church."
The Advertiser says :—" If the Whigs think of re-
gaining some portion of public favour, in attacking
the policy of 'their rivals, why do they not do so on le-
gitimate grounds, and to some noble, disinterested in-
tent ? But the question is, how have they the
effrontery to denounce the sliding scale, while pro-
posing nothing better themselves than an Bs. -duty ?
If they. were sincere in their battling for freedom of
commerce, what would they have to do with
a duty on corn at all ? If Sir Robert Peel
has played off the landlords, we can only say
it is,:so much to his credit with the country
and: with the agriculturists ; but by their own ad-
mission,- the Whigs would not have played thus into
the hands of the country; but really :into those of
the landlords. The - fact, however, is, the nation
wants not the 'arts' of the tariff, as, after the remarks
of the Chronicle, they are perhaps to be called, nor
the open fraud of the sliding scale. In good truth,
the nation is sick of the artifices and intrigues of all
her several enemies, be they Peelites, Whigs, or out-
and-out-Conservatives : they are entirely the same in
this—they Man nothing beyond their own interests.
One may endeavour to accomplish the points of his
ambition by one means, another through other media;
but the grand goal of these several factions is identical
—it is self here, self there, self everywhere. The best
part of Sir Robert Peel's policy is
.assuredly the tariff,
which is, in fact, the only part, as he himself knows,
which keeps him in office."
moNzy—TRADE—COMMERCE.

A special meeting of the Proprietors of the Northern
and Eastern Railway was held on Wednesday at the
London Tavern, when resolutions were passed for the
disposal of 3,136 foreited shares, and also for authoris-
ing the Drectors to borrow 155,0001.

MCCZXSIASTICAL.
`The Wesleyans in the metropolis, and throughout
England, make a general fast to-day and prayers are
to be offered up in all their chapels.
AGRICULTURAL.

The tenth annual ploughing match of the Royal
South Buckingham Association, took place in a 130
acre field, at Langley, en Wednesday. Prizes to the
amount of 1301. were afterwards distributed.

NAVAL AND 111ILITART.
The late Rear-Admiral Butterfield, whose death
took place recently at Portsmouth, was midshipman
of the Buffalo in the Dogger Bank action in 1781;
and in the Nonsuch in Rodney's action; was Lieute-

nant of the Majestic in Howe's ; was senior of the
Mars in her hard fought action with and capture of
L'Hercule, when liee Captain (Hood) was mortally
wounded ; while commanding the Hazard, captured,
after an action of nearly two hours, the French ship-
of-war Neptune, of 10 guns, 53 crew, and 270 soldiers;
served as agent of transports at the capture of the
Cape in 1805.