The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-06 00:00:00

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SUN OFFICE Three e'Cloch.

" The Church," says the Bishop of LLANDAPF,
in his last Charge to his clergy, " must, to use a
phrase injuriously applied to her sacred formu-;
larks, continue to work in chains." And in an.
other part he asserts that the Church is subject
to a grievance far beyond any which
sectaries complain of as imposed upon
them. Our readers, no doubt, will be a
little puzzled to find out what sort of manacles
those are which the (established (clergy are com-
pelled to wear, and what that grievance
is ;which far counterbalances the griev-
ances of which Dissenters have such
just reason to complain. Catholics are
obliged to pay largely for the maintenance of an
establishment which they regard as heretical.
Their clergy and their poor, they say, have been
robbed of tithes and Church lands, they have,
therefore, not only to support their own Church,
but also that which deprived them of their rights
and the poor of their alms. The Dissenters
are placed in somewhat the same predicament,
and though these two classes of Christians pro-
bably amount to one-half of the population of
England and Ireland, they have to contribute
to the richest Church in the world, and one,
too, from which they derive no benefit; but all
these are mere trifles compared with the sad con-
dition of the:Bishops and Clergy, for they must
bow to the highest ,authority—the law of the
land—and bury with funeral rites even persons
that have received only lay baptism. To hear the
Vicar of Gedney or Bishop PHILPOTTS pour forth
such lamentations, and describe in exaggerated
terms the grievances of the Church, would sur-
prise no one, but we certainly read with asto-
nishment such statements from one of the ablest
and most learned of the English prelates. Like
the Non-Intrusionists, his Lordship wants more
power—he wants the lands altered, and proposesa
Commission or a general Convocation ofthe clergy
to devise some remedy for this intolerable griev-
ance. The stormy proceedings of the General
Assembly, and the disturbed state of the Scotch
Church, seem, however, to make his Lordship
rather averse to such assemblages, which he
justly remarks, " lead to so much strife
and ambition, as to defeat in a great
manner the good purpose for which they were
convened." A Commission, therefore, will be the
means adopted, and it will probably be moved
for next session. If any such project is se-
riously entertained we would recommend that
a MixedkCommission:should be appointed with
the Bisilop of LLANDAPF as chairman, and a
goodly number of his brethren as councillors and
advisers, and to these should be added, a sprink-
ling of Non-Intrusionists, with Dr. CHALMERS
and Dr. CANDLISII at their head. The
Scotch clergy, too, have many grievances
to complain of ; and we can, therefore, see
no reason why a deputation should not be sum-
moned to London, and coniult with the English
clergy in Westminster Hall, as in days of old,
for removing the chains by which they are
bound, and declaring their power superior to
that of the State. Looking at' the question, how-
ever, in a serious light, we may ask what
hardship there is in being required to perform
duties which are amply repaid, or in reading
the beautiful service for the dead over the re-
mains of a brother or a sister, even though they
have not complied in every respect with the
rules and ceremonies of the Church ?

The amiable twaddle of our fair Contemporary,
conspi-
cuous ethraalnd,
iinvasn some never r more amusingly
remarks which she makes
this morning, on the subject of a Chinese Man-
darin's rumoured visit to London in the official
capacity of an Ambassador. Grandmawa is
absolutely in hysterics on the occasion. The
importance of the event overwhelms her with
awe, and she lets fly her pop-gun—which she
mistakes for a thunderbolt—full in the face of
the audacious Times, which has irreverently
cracked the most innocuous and good-natured of
jokes on the subject of Fum-no and his invisible-
footed spouse. 4, Laughter at Chinese pig-tails,"
quoth the Herald, " may be as disastrous in its
consequences, as the cheers which saluted FRE-
DERICK WILLIAM were beneficial." Our Con-
temporary is right; and the reflections which
this grave observation induces, are such as must
necessarily fill all rational minds with the
utmost consternation. To laugh at a Chinese
Ambassador's pig-tail ! Gracious Heavens, was
there ever such blasphemy! But, alas! the
heinous deed is done—the atrocious joke has
already gone forth on the wings of the Press;
and it is now a matter of historical record, not
only that the Times—that most outrageous of
journals, which has no more notion of good-
breeding than a kangaroo—has dared to laugh
at the rear-ward embellishment of his Chinese
Excellency's outer Adam, but has set upwards
of two hundred thousand readers laughing also,
fit to split! Thank God, we are not guilty of
the like extravagance I We never quizzed a
Chinese Ambassador's pig-tail ! No ;we never
spoke of him, and his, but with a respect amount-
ing to adoration; and we now formally lay claim to
the praise of the Herald for our benign forbear-
ance. Furthermore, we
conjure our readers, if
not as a matter of feeling, at least, as a matter of
policy, to exercise the same wholesome discretion,
W e conjure them, as they value free trade with
China, with Bohea
at sixpence a pound, and
Souchong at next to nothing, to indulge in no
more horse-laughs at Chinese pig-tails; but, on
the contrary, to regard them as symbols
of august rank; and to make the hou-
tou whenever they may happen to
cross their line of vision. If they
must laugh at a tail, why not laugh
at DAN O'CONNELL'S ? 'His is much thicker,
twice as long, and—with due deference to the
Alderman, be it observed—twice as grotesque!
But should our readers not sympathise with us
in the spirit of these observations, wrung from
us in the patriotic paroxysm of the moment,
at least let them join us in the fervent hope that,
in deference to the risible muscles of John Bull,
his Chinese Excellency will, on approaching the
British shores, see fit, like Lord BATHURST,
to cut off his
Pig-tail, and so save himself from
the chance of being quizzed, and England from
the reproach of incivility.

,----- .
We have no further accounts from Barcelona,
if we except the following
extract from the
Sentinelle des Pyrenees:—" Demi-official news
has reached Bayonne of the submission of Bar-
celona without any conditions, with the exception
of about 200 men, who had shut themselves up in
one of the fortresses of the town." According to
other accounts,
the town on the 28th was
blockaded by sea and land, and could not long
hold out. The news from Madrid is without
interest.

The Paris papers contain no further accounts
from Barcelona. A. dense fog, it appears, pre-
vailed at Park during Saturday and Sunday
morning, which prevented all communication by
the telegraph, either with Spain or the south of
France. In the - absence of news, therefore, the
papers are generally occupied with the Barcelona
affair, and the results it may have on ESPAR-
TEno's Government. Of course some of them
take the opportunity of throwing blame on Eng-
land, for no misfortune can happen to France
(and the failure of the insurrection the P resse
evidently regards as such) without somehow or
other being caused by this country. These wri-
ters, while they display their bad feeling, only
give the French and the rest of the world a
much higher idea of her vast power and attention
to her trice interests. The Constitutionnel justly
condemns the policy of LOUIS PHILIPPE in rele-

rence to the insurrection, and trusts that for the
future no countenance will be given to those emi-
grants (Queen CHRISTINA ofcourse among the rest)
who seem only capable of exciting partial dis-
turbances, and have no influence over either the
army or the people of Spain. The Journal des
Debats, on the part of the Government, denies
all participation in the late events. " The Eng-
lish," says its correspondent at Madrid, " who
are interested in depreciating the moderate party,
and consequently the influence of France, have
not been behindhand in their assertions that
there were manoeuvres of this party at the bottom
of the affairs at Barcelona, when all the world
knows, on the contrary, that the Moderadoes
'had nothing whatever to do with the events.
The truth has also come out as to the pre-
tended co-operation of the British navy in the
affair. The Government never solicited any
maritime succour from England, and Mr. ASTON'S
dispatch to Gibraltar was only regarding the pro-
, tection of British subjects, and nothing else."

The affair of Ma4gran still excites some in-
terest, and a very general belief begins to pre-
vail that the dispatch giving an account of a gal-
lant stand made at that place by a handful of
French troops several months since, was a pure fic-
tion. "An English journal," says the National,
" asserted, some days back, that the affair of Ma-
zagran was a lie, of which all France was the dupe.
We hoped that the War Minister would contra-
dict this assertion, or give at least some explana.
tion on the point. Marshal SOULT, however, re-
mains silent, and Ministerial journals follow his
example. The same foreign journal now recurs
to the subject, giving further details, and sum-
moning the Marshal to state what he intends to
do with the sums subscribed by French and Eng-
lish or the erection of the monument. Govern-
ment can remain no longer silent. Its duty is to
speak out the truth, how painful soever this may
be to our amour propre. If we have been de-
ceived by impostors, we ought not to remain accom-
plices of the cheat. If, on the contrary, the
English journal calumniates the soldiers of
Mazagran, it ought to be refuted and condemned.
At all events, a frank explanation is required."