The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-22 00:00:00

know-
,chlevous.

SPilx.lT OF Tilt PUBLIC JOURN

ALS.

A letter from Mexico was yesterday receiver
in town, which, if its statements may be relied
on, discloses a very curious negotiation which
has been carrying on between that Government
and the Minister for the United States. The
letter, we understand, is addressed to so respect-
able a quarter, that its authenticity is hardly to be
doubted. It is affirmed, that a proposition has
been made by the American Minister, in conse-
quence of the threatened invasion of Mexico by
the Spaniards, to lend assistance to counteract it,
io the most effectual way, by a large advance of
money, but not, of course, without a valuable
consideration." Mexico, it is proposed, shall
make over to the Government of the United
Suites, for a term of years in the first instance,
the province of Texas and the peninsula of Cali-
fornia. If at the end of that time the money ad-
vanced shall not be repaid, the possession of
those rich and extensive countries is to vest in
the United States. The sum to be advanced
under this guarantee is stated at between
10,000,000/. and 12,000,0001. sterling,—quite
sufficient, if properly applied, to bring that
country into a state of prosperity as great as it
has ever enjoyed. The temptation, however,
might prove too great for the virtue of those who
administer its affairs. It is not stated in what
manner this proposition has been received how by
the Mexican Government. We suppose, h-
ever, unless the bait of so large a sum of money
completely blunts their understanding they will
}cave the sagacity to guess at the motives of the
Government of the Union. Mexico, unfortu-
nately, lies too convenient to the great Republic
not to excite a constant longing for its rich ter-
ritory and fine harbours. The Government of
the Union is too cautious to make known its
purposes abruptly or ostentatiously, but let it
.once have where to
till put it
itss
entire foot, awill
entry and it w
not
be ea,:ily removed c-
complisliO.
.For such a consummation, how-
ever, much :Ime is requisite, but tiler! is
nothing more likely :9 accelerate it than the insane
project of a Spanish invasl".—Yinies.
our duty
We have repeatedly considered
' h
tn press' upon the directors of medical coM,C:-
tion the propriety of requiring higher qualifi-
cations from the candidates for their medical
certificates, and of conducting with more rigour
an examination into their proficiency in those
brandies of knowledge already declared in-
dispensable. To the full extent which we de.
sired, we have reason to believe that our advice
has been appreciated ; and that if our recommen-
dation has not had a corresponding effect on the
result produced, it has at least; coincided with
the deliberate opinions of those who bare the
pov,er of carrying it into execution. We point i 4
out let year certain omissions, which we thought
defects, in the course of study decided upon by
the authorities of Apotheearies'-liall. We then
mentioned that a little more scholarship or know
ledge of the learned Itinguages should be re9uired
of persons who devoted ibeir lives to sciences
which generally borrowed their nomenclature
from the Greek and Latin ; and we suggested
it as no unreasonable proposition, that attend-
ance on a course of midwifery might be exacted
of practitioners avho could, upon leaving their
examination at the Hall, proceed home and place
au accoucheur over their doors. A more strict
examination, moreover, into all the branches of
knowledge with which candidates were pre-
viously required to be acquainted, and a pre-
set iption of a longer attendance on courses
of lectures, if thought necessary, were among
the subjects which we proposed for the con-
sideration of the Court of Examiners. We
have lately been favoured with the sight of a
table, containing an account of the number of
candidates examined, with the number of certi-
ficates given and refused, which testifies to the
conscientious severity with which the examiners
perform their difficult duty. Since 1815, when
the certificate of Apothecaries'-hall was rendered
indispensable to the general practitioner, this
severity has been augmented for the advantage of
the public and the respectability of the profes-
sion. In 1820, nearly 300 candidates were
examined, and only 13 rejected, or, in other
words, the admissions were, to the rejections,'
Lamely as one to 23. In 1827, the number of
tes examined was 510, and the rejections
7.'kit or one to ; arid last year the num-
were
as for admission was 365, and the
leer of clan.
a tresses" were 65, or as one to 5
rejected ads.
B_l:lths. Thus the number of unqualified per-
' ea for certificates has
sons wn, o stood an
5 to nearly 20 per cent.
risen from less than
5e,,,,„ or eis,-.lit years ; and as we
within the last:
cannot presume !'hat the exam liners are too fas-
tidious now, we mt:st conclude eii:l.er that they
had been too careless bef9re, orthat the J:.andard
by which they now estimast the proficiency
persons to whom the public health is intrusted
has been raised in favour of the public security.
We are quite aware that objections may be made
jo this inference, and cavils offered to this state-
at ; but until a case of partiality can be
made out against the Court of Examiners, of
which we have never heard a suspicion, we must
presume that' the examinations have been fairly
conducted, and That the country has been, by
them, save from the fliction of 65 incapable dprac-
titioners ; while, on the -tires hand, it can scarcely
be pretended tat the cotes:" of preparatory
study is too long, or the test qoa:fication too
rigorous, for the generality of those wiJO have
succeeded. In any other profession we might
be disposed to leave the practitioaer who de-
pend& upon public patronage to acquire, of his
own accord and for his own interest, those qua,
lifications which fit him for public confidence.
Lawyers and divines cannot very obviously do
any irremediable wrong to their clients or their
hearers, and therefore may be left without inter-
ference to find employment according to the be-
lief which they may establish in their capac;tv
after a long experience : but it is otherwise with
the surgeon or medical practitioner, whose first
operations may be fatal, and from whose instru-
inents or prescription no appeal can be made.
There can be no doubt that to some of those
medical candidates who triumphantly pass the
ordeal of exs:.mination, the prescribed period of
study and full alt2ount of lectures or attendance
may be a hardship, because to them they occa-
sion unnecessary expense and delay ; but no
system of education ought to presume extraor-
dinary talents. It is made for the general mass,
and ought to proceed on the hypothesis of ave-
rage capacity. Some ardent spirits, like the
horses of the Sun, may require no ,extraneous
stimulus-
1, Sputa sua properant, labor est inhibere volanteg;"
but the great body of students need the spur
more than the curb, and we can find an adequateadequate
cjmpetisation for a year's restraint imnpoed on
even skilful practitioners, in the rejection of a

eonsiderableal.
ledge or ca :na6A,
it
i ;lie
°l,,,,i3.ll7:llt(.lllll,llslttayecotnb.weyn;isait.t,deemt
oearl eteehxsecteol
tashneesrt
.ot in-that
tlt
tt
—lbid. a ft..,
ofm e•lnit:rliatnY'd' rathertwil to
at it is
We ha, to beat
the preset
whether
settle int. tT"
ter fere eit ber o" t • TS that
is hoped
aonsequellt upon the elation of
were natu. ally
and the vexation and irritation of the
one party,
other, will
be but temporary, and that both par-
ties will, in time, be gradually sobered down intoj
peaceful fc rbcarance. We are assured, that in '
the North ('f j island from 250,000 to 300,000
; that the Orange party, almost to.
possess arm:
a man, have muskets, and make up for their nu-
3ir ylipbsty.shmtel
ceroesu,nnapt eyr reisookrilet yi) tof their
Magistrates_
merical inferi,
Monaghan, it
cipline. Lon
Governor itten to Government, suggesting
and Go
appears, has w,
own his
tiie personallatelrs,ar
the propriety of disarming this highly excited'
stating,
tran eldrorn during
multitude, and
knowledge (havin g
many of them hi, "'self), that there are few men
better adapted for harp-shooters or guerillas in
the world than they are. Government, however,
have refused to act u Pon the suggestions which
his Lordship and otli, •N• Magistrates have trans . I
mitted, though few can! b supposed to know •ihe
state of the country hal.ter' than those wiro are
on the spot, or to p( _Ant out a wiser c'nurse to
avert the threatened calamities. As autho-
rities of the North of Ireland are, ni afortunately,
almost exclusively Orange, we should have
thought that Government would have been glad
to avail itself of the influence of men like Lord
Rossmore (who is known as a large and liberal
landholder), who- is ready to join cordially in
drawing the teeth of the exasperated faction. If
the one party engross nearly all places of au-
thority, and are determined to use their power
-against the Catholics, and the Government are
afraid to purify the Magistracy, it is a strange
sort of impartiality which would decline the co-
operation of those who are desirous of throwing
themselves between the oppressors and the op-
pressed.—Morning Chronicle,
The French Ministers are manifesting their •
love cf freedom and liberal institutions, by the
-
*1):-.er.:11t1011 Of ail sfonotlox Journal, the Aims-
fi
tolique, which oppressed them of eiou; but
injurious friendship, in publishing in their de-
fence an artide ascribing the change to the in-
: terposition of Providence, and declarink that
Religion in tears, after forty years' persecution,
claimed a new older of things;" and that the
origin of time evil proceeded from a Charter, and
from several thousand laws prepared and drawn
up by men without faith and religion." Such
prosecution might originate as much in a feeling
that the publication of such sentiments at the
moment was unseasonable, as in any dislike of
the opinions themselves; and, at all events, it is
tint very gratifying to reflect, that it is deemed
necessary to prosecute every opinion not palatable
to time men in power, Is there no way of re-
futing error but by an appeal to the Tribunals ?
Is it necessary that every man IA ho lives under a
Government should believe that it is the best
possible ? The .4postolinue may have sincerely
deemed the late change interposition of Pros
vidence. There are many thousands of pers.
sons in this country who believe that the late
Sainti who died in so edifying a manner in
front of Newgete, are in an enviable situation
compared with those who died unprepared in
the Brunswick Theatre, and who conceive Pro,
vidence bound to interfere in furthering all their
views. It has long been an understood matter
in wars between France and England, that on
the other side of the Channel Providence is with
the French, while op this side Providence is
with the English ; and there might might be ,
I prosecutions going on at the same time in France
for making Providence an English partisan, and
in England for making it a French partisan. Is
it not giving too much consequence to folly to
prosecute it ? In the same manner a man may
disapprove of the Charter, and may publish his
disapprobation without meriting prosecution. If
we must disapprove of nothing that is established
we can never change that which is bad for what
is better, The stability of the Charter does not
depend on the opinion of the writer of the Apos-
tolique, but on the attachment of the French
people to it. If they We attached to the
charter, the adverse opinion of a miserable
fanatic will not surely destroy their attachment,
There is stv.',yys more ground for apprehend-
ing that men will feign actiniescence in the pre-
vailing opinions of a people., than that they will
feign disapprobation of them. There is no In-
quisition in England, and very little risk of pro-
secution, at present, for opinions; and yet the
ingenious Mr. W. Taylor, of Norwich, observes,
that " the English ans.l the Spanish are the
moat pious and the least tolerant of all the Eu-
ropeans ;" and because the English shore this
distinction with the Spaniards, insincerity in
~,n-iters will, from instinct, naturally be on the
side or intolerance. The prosecution of the
Aposidique
however, no doubt a rust, in
;..7;
order to render the
i;.rosecution of the Journal
des Dehats less odious. ;,";;_e Ministers, caring
• nothing for the Apostolique, are not trobled with
anyserdples in sacrificing one for whom they have
no regard, in order to reach one whom they
hate. The Charter consecrates the principle of
Toleration, which is a very odious principle to
the greatest part both of Catholics and Pro-
testants. The Catholics and Protestants differ
merely in this—the Catholics deem it a
sin in Catholics to tolerate Protestants, but
nroper in Protestants to tolerate Catholics, where-
f;n.-;!estants deem it a sin in Protestants to to-
lerate Cathoiteß, but proper in Catholics to tole-
rate Protestants. ff 4 e,o,!holic believes it a sin
n less than
to tolerate a Protestant, how can ireI
believe that the Charter which consecrates the
principle of toleration was " drawn up by men
without faith and religion ?" No church has
ever formally recognised toleration ; but as zeal
has begun to cool, and a disposition to tolerate
each other has gradually st9len upon the dif-
ferent sects, the cnuenhmen have connived at
the innovation. Joseph the Second, as is well
known, nearly produced
a rebellion in Hungary
by the Edict of Tolcrtivn,
4ftpc his death,
when, after an interruption of Afteen years,
Diet was called by Leopold, in 1790, it required
all the wisdom and firmness of Leopold to make
head against the danger. The whole of the
clergy, with the exception of two Bishops,
with eighty-four lay votes, demanded the re-
peal of the Edict of Toleration. We have
no doubt that habit has since wrought a
great change in the Hungarian clergy, as
it ha; done in the Scotch Presbyterian
clergy, who were long unable to brook the tole-
ration, which, after the Union, England core.
nelled them to swallow. Time is the great phy,
sician in :ill these mental diseases. Why should
not the Fanatics in France have Liberal organs
ali
as
well as the Liberals ? Let the sby

'Av
&