The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-27 00:00:00

*ctonbWitittion

Every preparation is being made at the Chamber of
Deputies for the opening of the session. The scaffolds
of the painters are removed, and carpets, furniture,
and decorations are daily brought in. The bas-relief
in plaster, representing the King taking the oath to i Workmen are engaged in laying down
observe the Charter, has been replaced by the work pavement round the Bank of England, in
itself in marble, executed by M. Ramey. i needle-street.

SUN OFFICE Three o'Cloch.

The inhabitants of the United States, if we
are to judge from the annual Message delivered
by the PRESIDENT, are a very religious people.
That high functionary, to whatever party he may
belong, never subjects himself to the imputation
made by Sir ROBERT INGLIS against the MEL-
BOURNE Government, but devoutly offers up
thanks, in the name of the people, for the mani-
fold mercies conferred on them as a nation.
The Message this year is peculiarly marked in
this respect. "We have continued reason," says
he, "to express our profound gratitude to the
great CREATOR of all things, for numberless
benefits conferred upon us as a people." And
after enumerating some of these benefits, adds,
"Such are the circumstances under which you
now assemble in your respective Chambers, and
which should lead us to unite in praise and
thanksgiving to that GREAT BEING who made
us, and who preserves us as a nation." After
such a solemn preamble, we expected some se-
vere admonitions respecting the sins of the
people, and especially those two great national
sins, Slavery and " Repudiation." Not the
slightest rebuke of these great crimes escapes
from his lips ; and though he laments in the most
lugubrious strains the wantof money and the want
of credit, he forgets to lament the sufferings
brought upon thousands of families in England
and France by a system of fraud and bad faith
unexampled in modern times. Even France,
when driven to madness by the profligacy of her
rulers, and the total ruin of her finances, did not,
like certain States, forget justice and honour,
but paid according to her means. For the
Americans there is no such excuse as poverty or
bad goverment; for, according to the PRESIDENT,
it is a land blessed with genial seasons—the
granaries are filled with abundance—the neces-
saries of life abound in every direction, and it is
the best governed country in the world. This
omission is the more remarkable, as, in
almost the same breath in which he

alludes to want of credit, he emphatically de•
dares that the credit of a Government is the
very soul of a Government itself—a principle of
vitality, without which all its movements are
languid, and all its operations embarrassed. The
first great duty, therefore, he had to perform was
to enjoin upon the people the only course for re-
medying the evil. He should have taken his text
from the inspired writings, which he has evidently
read with care, and said " Pay that which thou
owest." " Thou shalt not covet any thing that
is thy neighbour's." " Owe no man any thing."
The Giver of all Good to whom he so devoutly
pours out thanksgivings cannot fail to punish
deeds which are contrary to the principles
of morality and the dictates of true religion ; and
that nation which sets them at defiance, how-
ever
powerful, cannot escape, any more than a
private individual, from the consequences of
such crimes. The punishment in fact has corn-
menced. Credit is gone, trade is paralysed, and
universal reproach now attaches to the whole
American nation. They have ample means;
the money thus fraudulently obtained has en-
abled them to make railroads and canals, and
improve extensive tracts of territory ; and while
they derive the comforts as well as the neces-
saries of life from these means, many of their
unfortunate creditors are pining in want and
broken-hearted. Indignation against such con-
duct, and the manner in which the Chief Magis-
trate of a great country has passed over it, is
loudly expressed in all quarters. Let the Ame-
rican Congress, therefore, look to its true inte-
rests, and wipe away the disgrace. Improve-
ments in one State benefit all those around it ;

the debt of each of them becomes the debt of
the community; and common sense and common
justice demand that Congress should recognise it
as such. There are many honourable and able
men in that assembly, and we therefore confi-
dently trust that the subject will be brought for-
ward this session; and that a country which boasts
of its liberty, its wealth, and its religion, will re-
move a stigma which now effectually excludes it
from the pale of civilized nations.

As we observed yesterday, Lord MANNERS'S
pamphlet, entitled " A Plea for National Holi-
days," is more to be commended for its good in-
tentions, than the sagacity which dictated it.
When we glanced over two or three of its
earlier pages, we began to fancy that his Lord-
ship's views would be very likely to accord with
our own, on the subject of holidays, inasmuch as
we are no advocatessfor—what the Spectator aptly
calls—" the all work and no play system,"
but bold that occasional recreation is abso-
lutely indispensable to the mind's health
as well as the body's; we soon found, however,
abundant cause to differ with the Noble Lord,
for if he recommend an increase in the number
of public holidays, it is not so much with a view
to the people's welfare, as to the aggrandisement
of the Church. He seems to imagine, with the
Puseyites, that she has not half power enough,
and accordingly he would increase that
power by every ingenious contrivance pos-
sible. Hence his lament for the pau-
city of holidays, and his recommendation
that their number should be increased, so that—
we quote his own words—" the poor and labour-
ing population of England may be restored to the
beneficent and venerable sway"of Mother Church.
Now we have no desire to see this ancient dame
exercising more influence over the minds of the
poor than she at present exercises, for we cannot
but remember that she has almost invariably
been an enemy to freedom of thought, and has
made a point of exerting her authority with a
view to keep the popular mind in a state of
" fat, contented ignorance." "We have abun-
dant reason to hope," observes Lord JOHN MAN-
NERS, " that were the observance of Sainls-days
services encouraged, rather than discouraged by
modern laws, and habits, not only would our
churches be filled with humble worshippers, but
the poor and needy would feel in many little and
unsuspected ways, far more than they can feel
now, that the Church is indeed to them a mother
—an endless well of comfort and consolation,
running over with blessings, temporal and
eternal, alike in the heats of Laminas
or the snows of Christmas." This is a
mere flourish of speech, which means
something or nothing, just according to the
reader's fancy. The allusion, in particular, to
the probability of the Church's proving a mo-
ther to the poor, is a special instance of rigma-
role. She may exhibit herself to them as a
grandmother, with all the indolence and imbe-
cility of old age; but we think it very unlikely
that she will ever give them proofs of her ma-
ternal relationship to them, by evincing any ex-
cessive solicitude respecting their spiritual and
temporal interests.

The intelligence from Barcelona is to the 18th,
but is generally without interest. The REGENT,
who was still at Sarnia, had shown great le-
niency towards the insurgents, and had set at li-
berty almost every civilian. The war contribu-
tion, too, was to be reduced from 600,000 to
400,000 dollars. The fbllowing telegraphic dis-
patch, from the French frontier, has been re-
ceived :

"PERPIGNAN, DEC. 23.
" General Seoane, the new Captain-General, ar-
rived at Barcelona on the 20th. General Van Ilalen
was to leave on the 22d, with the Regent. A delay
of a week had been granted for the payment of the
contribution.

" The Foreign Consuls, including the English one,
have offered a public dinner to the French Consul
and to the Commandant and staff of the French and
naval force."

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