The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-01 00:00:00

taking is no less wonderful. In three years from
the period of signing the contract, fourteen
vessels of this large size will be fully equipped, with
four boilers and six boats each, sufficient to contain
all the passengers in case of emergency, with suitable
works for guns when required, powerful fire-engines,
and every means of strength and safety that human
ingenuity can devise. Such a fleet would be of in-
incalculable advantage in war, and independent of its
vast utility for promoting commerce, and facilitating
communication between Great Britain and the whole
of the Western World, it forms a powerful gua-
rantee for the blessings of peace. These vessels could
be converted into war frigates in a few weeks, possi-
bly in a few days, and as all the other nations
of the world (taking into account our commercial
steam navy) could not furnish one half of the num-
ber of sea-worthy steamers, we may rest assured
that none of them would inter into a rash or unjusti-
fiable war with this country. These are only a few
of the advantages resulting from such undertakings.
They promote intercourse with foreign nations, en-
lourage trade and commerce, and form the most pow-
erful means of spreading the arts of peace and civili-
sation ever yet discovered. Great credit, therefore, is
due to the late Government for establishing this new
system, and we confidently trust it will not be neglected
by their successors. Every plan for improvement should
be duly rewarded. All the machinery of vessels of
one description and size should be constructed on the
same gauge and scale, so that any portion of
an engine could be obtained at an hour's
notice, and the officers and engineers should be amply
paid to induce men of talent and skill to enter the
service. With these and other improvements, Great
Britain would continue, as she has long been, without
a rival either as a naval or commercial nation.

The French Journals are delighted to learn that
Bishop ALEXANDER is unpopular at Jerusalem, and
that the Porte has refused to recognize him in an
Episcopal capacity. We have no right to complain
of this. By sending a Bishop to Jerusalem, where
there is absolutely no Protestant congregation, or
Protestant place of worship, we have rendered our-
selves obnoxious to all the ridicule which they may
please to cast upon us. There never was a
more foolish business than sending an English
Bishop, with his wife and children, to convert the in-
habitants of Syria. All who have travelled in the
East must be conversant with the deep impressions of
the populace respecting the chastity of the priesthood.
We ask these persons, was there anything more likely
to fill the inhabitants of Jerusalem with disgust than
a Bishop heading a triumphal cavalcade, followed
by a wife in a state of advanced pregnancy,
and a litter full of children ? 'His very first ap-
pearance was an outrage against public decency,
so far as concerned his family, and a mockery of the
humility learned at the foot of the Cross in what re-
lated to himself. Our Government should learn to
imitate the conduct of prudent men of the world, who
confine, as much as they can, the exhibition of the
weaknesses of their character to the observation oftried
friends. The affair of the Syrian Bishopric is not more
silly, and not half so unjust as we daily practice
nearer home ; but then the Turks know nothing about
it, and neither do one half the population in France.
Were Syria a British province, and we to treat the
Syrians as we do the Irish, we would not only send
them one Bishop, but a dozen of them, together with
some hundreds of rectors, and an army of priests into
the bargain ; and, moreover, we would compel every
mother's son of them—Jews, Turks, Druses, Armenians,
Copts, and Catholics—to support these ecclesiastics, in
the style of Pashas and Emirs, out of the proceeds of a
Christian impost, called tithes. And could no other
employment be found for this army of divines in a
land of unbelievers, we would employ them in libel-
ling the creeds of the country, abusing its ancient
clergy, and vilifying every one of its religious insti-
tutions. All this we do, and for centuries have done
in Ireland. But why expose ourselves to be laughed
at by attempting to propagate this system ? In Scot-
land it proved a failure, and in our colonies it is fast
sowing the seeds of general disaffection. As Dr.
ALEXANDER, the Bishop of Jerusalem, is really an
amiable, learned man, the best thing Sir R. PEEL can
do, as we stated yesterday, is to order a Government
steamer to carry himself and his family back to Eng-
land. His first proceeding proves' that he is
but ill qualified for such a mission, what-
ever be the extent of his knowledge of Oriental
languages. Had he taken his Bible with him, and
left his pregnant wife behind him, he would have
shown some signs of a respect for Syrian prejudices,
indicative of ultimate success. But. in courting, as
he has done, a crown of martyrdom, he has defeated
one of the great ends of his mission-- the rendering of
the English Church popular in Palestine.

According to letters from Madrid of the 22d of
March, the Spanish Government begins to be se
riously perplexed as to what course ought to be pur-
sued for prolonging the minority of the young
Queen. Her MAJ.EsTr, according to the laws of the
Spanish monarchy, will be of full age at fourteen—a
period of life when no girl is capable of assuming the
government of a great nation. The Regent ESPAR-
TER° is for prolonging her minority till eighteen,
and this can only be done by summoning an extra-
ordinary Session of the Cortes, for the sole and
express purpose of revising the Constitution. Now
the revising power of such a body could not be re-,
stricted to a single article of the Constitution, unless
such was their pleasure. Here, then, is a serious
difficulty, which the Government is doing all in its
power to overcome.
" A disgusting sacrilege," says the Constituciona/ of
Barcelona, " has taken place in this city. A man, after
receiving the communion at the altar of the Cathedral,
took the holy wafer from his mouth, and stuck it, in de-
rision, on the church door. A similar scandal was per-
petrated in the church of St. Peter."
Madrid Bourse, of the 22d.—Five per Cents., 28 to
281, at sixty days.

The dearth of news in the French Journals conti-
nues. No person seems to pay much attention to the
winding up of the affairs of the Chambers, previous
to their dissolution. The session has proved alto-
gether a very barren one, except in the article of
nonsense, of which the harvest has been remarkably
abundant. Among the industrious gleaners after
the reapers in this field, is M. GoLnEßay who has still
a committee at work, to discover how the nonsense
of the Chambers may be most easily disseminated
throughout France. M. GOLBERRY, who is a remark-
ably good listener, though jhe does not talk much
himself, proposes that the Chamber shall appoint
sworn reporters, who are to pen every syllable. spoken
by the various orators, publish the whole daily at the
expense of the country, and address copies free to the
whole of the electoral body throughout France. Let
only 'a scheme bear( the--stamp of sheer absurdity
on the face of it, and the French Chamber of De-
puties will be sum to appoint a committee to
examine. Let it be feasible and rational, and
it is fifty to one they will laugh at it ; but if
preposterous, they will be sure to assume a grave
philosophical air, and, like magpies
,peeping into a
bone, whence the marrow has been extracted, look
the very personification of puzzled incapacity. Not
a single Member of the Chamber saw anything dis-
honest or immoral in a plan for taxing thirty-five
millions of people for the political education of a
hundred thousand families distinguished from the
rest by the very fact of their being more wealthy.
Some objection was made by the Editor of the Siecle,
who is a Deputy, against a scheme for ruining the
press of Paris, but he took merely a class-interest
view of the question. That M. GOLBERRY'S plan will
eventually he rejected we have too high an opinion of
the common sense of France to doubt. What annoys
us is that it was not flung to the winds the moment it
was proposed.
The King and Queen of the Belgians are expected at
the Tuileries to-day, or to-morrow. Lieutenant-General
do Rumigny, who returned three days ago from Africa,
whither he was sect to take the place of General Bu
geaud, had an audience the day before yesterday of his
Majesty ; yesterday morning, he had a conference of
above two hours with Marshal Soult. A great number
41: Prefects are now in Paris, who have doubtless been
sent on occasion of the approaching general elections.
A Journal announces, that the Electoral Colleges will
be convoked for the 28th of August.
M. Dufaure, it is said, has announced that his report
on iron railroads will be laid before the Commissioners
in a week.

The manufacturers of beetroot sugar, in the depart-
ment of the North, will hold a general meeting at Lisle,
on the 30th of this month, for the purpose of consider-
ing what measures they have to take in the present state
of the manufactures.
The Marquis of Lansdowne has. arrived at Paris.—
Constitutionnel.

On Monday the Committee on the Budgethaerd the
Maditera of War, Foreign Affairs, and Marine. Mar