The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-16 00:00:00

`g- tronnitition

SUN OFFICE Three o'Cleek.

Three members of the House of Represen-
tatives at Washington have addressed a letter to •
the PRESIDENT of the United States, praying his
Excellency to solicit from the British Govern-
ment the liberation of upwards of a hundred
American citizens, now suffering inVan Diemen's
Land the penalties of joining in the rebellion in
Canada. To this letter the Secretary of State
has returned an answer to the effect that the
PRESIDENT will lose no time in complying there-
with, and that Mr. WEBSTER would himself
urge Lord ASHBURTON to press the subject upon
the consideration of the British Government.
Such an appeal we sincerely trust will not be
made in vain. The honour and independence of
the British Government has been sufliCiently
vindicated by the transportation of these prisoners
to a British penal colony. For the purposes
of example no good can be gained by a further
prolongation of their punishment ; whereas their
liberation at the present moment will be appre-
ciated as a national compliment by every State
in the Union. We can afford to spare a few
rogues, and not be thought a jot too merciful
either. By all means, therefore, let them be
given up as soon as their liberation is prayed
for by the Federal Government. Should they
find their way back to the neighbourhood of
Navy Island they will be in no humour for join-
ing another invading expedition. On the con-
trary, their experience of the unpleasant conse-
quences of rebellion will be profitably taught to
• their quondam sympathising associates.

A Correspondent justly complains of the ati-
noyance inflicted on the public, and the injury
done to religion by the ranting preachers that on
Sundays infest every open space around the me-
tropolis. They consist chiefly of young men
who " disfigure their faces," quote Scripture in-
coherently; and shout to the utmost pitch of
their voices, like Bedlainites, causing not a little
alarm to timid women, and great offence to sober
Christians. There is another class, however, of
a different character, whose object is evidently
mischievous. They are generally persons of
doubtful morality, and professed infidels,
who seem anxious to unsettle the minds
of the young by encouraging disputation
on religious subjects, and casting ridicule on
everything sacred. Some of these lie under the
suspicion of collecting crowds, in order to afford
their associates an opportunity of committing
robberies, and the public should therefore be on
their guard when the dispute runs high, as that
is the moment chosen for effecting their purpose.
If two or three of these schemers were sent to
the treadmill for a month, they perhaps would
not come out of prison better men, but to a cer-
tainty the neighbourhood of the metropolis would
be greatly improved by their absence. As for the
youngaspirants to theological fame, they should be
handed over to their friends for the first offence,
and duly warned that by pursuing such a course
they will find themselves one day either in Bed-
lam or the Penitentiary. If this field-preach-
ing by laymen is to be suffered at all it should be
placed under proper regulations, and no one
allowed to " hold forth" from a tub or a truck, or
any of the different ready-made pulpits in use,
without a license from a Magistrate, granted on
the attestation of respectable householders as to
. , character and soundness of mind.

A Leeds paper contains an excellent article on the
ignorance of the upper classes, in the course
of which it observes :—" We do not mean
to say that the upper classes are ignorant of their
alphabet. Many of them, we believe, are what are
called learned men. They are acquainted with the
dead languages, and dabble in philosophy and meta-
physics at Oxford and Cambridge. But so far as
the heart and soul are concerned, we believe
the upper classes are just as little educated,
take them all in all, as the working classes,
whom they denominate the ignorant lower orders."
These animadversions are as just as they are severe,
as every one must acknowledge, who is in the slightest
degree acquainted with the system pursued at our
fashionable public schools. At these institutions the
useful branches of knowledge are almost uniformly
sacrificed to the ornamental ones ; little or no atten-
tion is paid to the modern languages, to arithmetic,
politics—we use the word in its more enlarged
sense—history, finance, or those various arts
and sciences which bear upon the great busi-
ness of life ; Greek and Latin are the only
stpdies in request ; and provided a lad has distin-
guished himself at school and college by his nice ac-
quaintance with the metres of the choruses of the
Greek dramatists, by his facility in manufacturing
hexameters and pentameters, and writing Latin
themes on the death of BRUTUS, and so forth, he is
considered every way qualified to play the part of
legislator. What though he be as ignorant as a horse
of the legal institutions of his country, and know no-
thing more of ccmmerce, than that it is a certain some-
thing that fills the breeches pockets of John Bull—is
he not a dab at longs and shorts ; can he not
throw off, at a moment's notice, an Alcaic
or a Sapphic stanza ; and prove, in indif-
ferent Latin prose, that TARQUINIUS SUPERBUS
was no better than he should have been ? and
thus accomplished, can it be doubted that he is
the very man to legislate safely for the people ? It
is really high time that this absurd system of educa-

tion should be put an end to ; and the upper classf,,
taught that something more is necessary to constitute
a statesman, than just a mere showy knowledge of
the classics. It would not be amiss, indeed, if those
among them who have already reached the years of
discretion, were all to be put to school again ; and
competent masters appointed to teach her MAJESTY'S
Cabinet—more especially Lord STANLEY—the rudi-
ments of a useful, practical education.

We find no news of interest in the French
journals of Wednesday, the whole of which we
have received. The Debats and the National
have articles on the German Commercial Union
—a subject which has recently obtained much
attention in France. We quote the following
extract from the article in the National:—

" The German Customs' Union possesses a very
small extent of sea coast—from Stralsund to the Vis-
tula. All this space belongs to Prussia, and it is only
through it that the goods of the Union can arrive
directly at the sea. The Cabinet of Berlin has made
extraordinary efforts to concentrate in this narrow
space all the foreign trade in the Union. Ports have
been deepened, canals and roads opened, and the
course of several rivers turned and improved. By the
Cologne railroad, which passes through Westphalia,
the capital will be put in communication with the
Rhine; on the east, another line proceeds towards
Saxony, by Magdeburg and Halle, and will unite
her with the centre of Germany; and, on the north, a
railroad is to proceed to Stettin, which will carry to the
Baltic all the commerce proceeding from Berlin.
But, notwithstanding her energetic efforts, Prussia
feels that complete success is rendered impossible by
the very nature of circumstances, for would it not be
in fact sovereignly absurd that, in order to be ex-
ported by the sea, the produce of the east, the south-
east, and the centre of Germany should be obliged
to go r•und by the Baltic, and submit to the
fiscal burdens of the Sound ? On this account
Prussia has long sought to open, for her own com-
merce and that of her allies, a more considerable
issue by the Baltic, and another issue by the
North Sea. Hitherto she has failed, for Hamburgh,',
Mecklemburgh, and the German part of Denmark
which touch the sea, and to whom this position as-
sures great advantages, have refused to allow them-
selves to be hemmed in by the Union. Not being
able to obtain her ends directly, Prussia proceeds by
other means, and proposes a railroad at their common
expense, expecting that, when this line shall have
been cut, the south-west of Mecklemberg, the southern
extremity of Holstein, and have united Hambuegh to
Berlin, these three Powers will not be able to main-
tain their neutrality. The complete accession of
these States may, therefore, be looked on as a matter
of certainty before long, mid Prussia will then have
perfectly attained the object which she has pursued
with so much energy and sagacity."
The Debats contains some remarks on the late or-
donnance of the King of Prussia for convoking the
Committee of the Provincial States, which is not
devoid of interest. After quoting the passage of the
ordonnance which declares that the-present measure