The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our readers will see that we have realized the
hope which we held out the day before yester-
day; of being able at length to lay before them
(we believe exclusively) a correct. and' authentic
copy of the important treaty, signed on the 6th
instant, for the independence of Greece—for
such we must call it, notwithstanding the usual,
and perhaps unavoidable, diplomatic reserves
which accompany such stipulations. If it be
recollected what mighty interests the settlement
of such a question may bring into collision at a
later period, the jealousy of the power of Russia
and the fear, under the. name or, humanity 'and
religion, of giving that Power.too great a hold
in that part of Europe so long the object of. its
persevering ambition, we believe it will be seen
that this State document is worded with as
much precision and firmness as it was pozsible
to give to it : if, on the other hand, it be re-
membered how much England, on her part, had
to avoid the reproach of unnecessarily meddling
in the internal affairs of other States, after her
repeated declarations ; and lastly, that which
was required, even with verbal precision, by the
ruling party in France, the same conclusion will
forcibly recur to the mind of any impartial
reader. That the mere agreement among the
Allied Powers averts the impending storm ready
to burst over Greece, is certain—that it may
work out her ultimate independence is not im-
probable. _ .

Ist. Suppose—awl that supposition is the least fa•
vourable to the Greeks—the mediation of the three Great
Powers be accepted by Turkey. Greece obtains, ipso
facts, a national Government, which will he attached to
the Porte by so weak a tie, that evidently the least effort
in future, with the additional right of interference, or
pretence for it, conferred on Russia, will break asunder
such remnant of connexion.

2d.
,Admitting that the Greeks should reject such '
mediation, at the mine time that Turkey accepts it, even
then the practical effects of the interference of the three
Powers will prove a shield to the Greeks, and secure the
preservation of what they have already wrested from their
oppressors.
But almittmg—(and this is the real and prac-
tical view of the matter)—admitting that Turkey
faithful to her constant policy, and to her recent
and uniform declarations, should reject such a
mediation, then, according to the additional and
secret article of this treaty, we learn that mea-
sures will be immediately taken to stop hostili-
ties between the contending parties, and to enter
into relations of amity with the Greeks, by
sending Consular Agents to them, and receiving
such officers from them, and thus virtually re-
cognizing the independence of the now existing
Government of Greece'. Upon the whole, then,
when we have stripped the above document of
the veil which surrounds and envelopes all such
state papers, we must congratulate those Govern-
ments whose Plenipotentiaries have affixed their
names to this important treaty, and hail the re-
appearance of the name of Greece among the
states of Euro-ie.—Times.

We have ourselves often spoken of the odious
nature of the Legacy Duty. A sensible letter,
by " An Executor," entering into a detail of
some part of the hardship and injustice which
that detestable impost inflicts, is inserted in this
day's journal, and will, we hope, have its due
etect towards procuring the abolition of the law.
It was one of those enactments which Pitt made
for the support of the late war, and from which
the blood-and-guinea-men—the agricultural in-
t3rest, who then rioted -in the affluence of high
itzwava, Tl ljaf 4nr.rnpt- Can
any thing be more unjust and partial than this—
that the little personal property which a husband
may leave to a disconsolate widow, perhaps a son
to a dependant mother, should be examined,
catalogued, and searched, that Government may
seize a portion ; whilst the estates of the wealthy,
not earned by industry, descend unexamined and
untaxed, not only from father to son, but to the
next in tail, be his relationship ever so remote ?
It may be said, that where the consanguinity is
near, in cases to which the legacy-duty does
apply, the portion abstrauted from it by Govern-
ment is small: but not so are the trouble,
anXiety, loss of time, and other evils : they are
often, as our Correspondent states, enough to
drive the survivor distracted, or to make him
• wish that his fate had preceded that of his de-
funct relative.—lbid.

We lately explained the constitution and
management of the Royal College of Surgeons,
and enumerated the complaints which have beet)
by a large portion of the members against
the governing body of the College. General ob-
servations, however, make less impression on
the public than particular instances: we there-
fore present to our readers an account of what
the College has done with respect to midwifery,
E.,: large and important branch of that profession
over which they preside. The council elect
;lone to fill up the vacancies in ,their own body,
.exeept those who practise surgery only ; and who
are, for the most part, surgeons to London
hospitals. They thus secure to the small class
to which themselves belong all the officers in the
College ; and they have the further power, w:
councillors, of benetitii.g themselves in their
other capacity of hospital surgeons, by framing
regulations respecting the education and examin-
ation of candidates for the diploma—a power
=opt freely exercised by them of late years, as
we have already explained. The exclusion just
alluded to is established by the two following by-
laws:—" Ist. Every person practising as an
Apothecary, ,or as a man-midwife, shall he in-
elieile to be a member of the Court. 2d. Ane
member' of the Court, who, while a member
thereof, sii:ll practise as an apothecary, or as
a man•midwilef shall be liable to such fine as
the Court shall adjudge, not exceeding the sum
of 501. for each and every week during which he
shall so continue to practise.. The invidious
distinction established by these bye-laws does not
receive the slightest sanction from the charter :
the general practitioners who are thus ignomi-
niously excluded from all share in the govern-
ment of the College, are, in their capacity of
members,
on a perfect equality with those sur-
g:ons on whom the monopoly is conferred.--
'& he essential distinction between the two de-
scriptions of members is, that the latter under-
stand, and practise surgery only, while the former
must add to a knowledge of surgery that of me-
dicine, pharmacy, and midwifery. The greater
extent of knowledge, and the greater power of
rendering useful service, are actually made the
grounds of disqualification ! The general prac-
titioners, against whom the doors of the court
are thus inexorably closed, constitute about
forty-nine fiftieths of the entirebody of members;
they are the physicians, surgeons, midwives, and
apothecaries, of the great mass of the commu-
pity, high as well as low : consequently, their
professional qualifications and respectability are
of the greatest consequence to the We
must either infer from these bye-laws that the
study and practice of midwifery involve some-
thing very degrading, or conclude that those who
made and uphold them, in order to. promote the
private ends of thernA.eiYes and the little knot

to which they belong, have not hesitated to
stigmatize unjustly a useful and honourable class
of men. The wise doings of the College
have not, however; ended here. It has been
lately remarked, that no previous test of know-
ledge is applied to those who practise midwifery,
and, inasmuch as midwifery is a branch of sur-
gery, the College of Surgeons has been looked
to for supplying the deficiency. The council,
having so effectually provided for its own igno-
rance of the subject, by the double security of
exclusion and heavy fine, could not very decently
undertake to examine persons on it ; yet they
have thought it necessary to do something, and
they have accordingly enacted, that " from and
after the first day of January, 1828, every can-
didate for the diploma of this College will be-
obliged to produce certificates of having attended
two lectures on the obstetric art and science, de-
livered by competent teachers." Without point-
ing out, what is very obvious,--that the mere
presentation of certificates, unaccompanied by
examination, or any other test, affords no secu-
rity at all for the possession of knowledge and
skill,—we merely direct attention to the amusing
contradiction between this recent regulation, and
the previous prohibitory by-laws. By the former,
all surgeons are required to study midwifery ;
while the latter prohibits the practical employ-
ment c: the knowledge thus acquired, under the
penalty of forfeiting eligibility to all offlces of
honour and trust in the College, or of a heavy
fin

A pamphlet, just published, has been put into
our hands, which advocates the refusal of Eman-
cipation to the Catholics upon new principles.—
Its title is, " A few Philosophical Reasons against
Catholic Emancipation,' and it is addressed to
Lord Farnham. The writer sets out with an
attempt to prove that Catholics are every where
in a degraded condition compared with , .
Pro-
testants, owing to the prostration of mind which
the Catholic religion inculcates.
" The peasantry of Ireland (he says) are wretched in the
extreme. They are not, however, as the demagogues tell
us, the most miserable people on the face of the earth ; for
the people of Spain and Portugal are equally as miserable.
The people of Sardinia and the Papal territories are not a
whit better off; and, if possible, the condition of the
inhabitants of South America is still more deplorable.—
Here is a curious fact.—a moral phenomenon ! Cast your
Lordship's eyes over the map of the civilized world, and
wherever Popery prevails, there ignorance and distress, and
superstition predominate ! they are inseparable ; the brood of
human miseries still hovers over the march of Catholicism, and
wherever society has undergone amelioration—wherever
Papists are found less slavish, and less benighted than usual,
there we invariably find a large portion of the people Pro-
testants. . . . . Distress in Ireland has never prevailed
to a fearful extent ; it has never been permanent but in
those places where Catholicism was the religion of the vast
Majority of the inhabitants. The fact is unquestionable—
the cause is equally obvious. Popery, in superseding the
natural independence of mind, provides amply against the
introduction of knowledge; it perpetuates ignorance and its
consequences. It does more; it promises heaven, only on
condition of the endurance of misery on earth. Agreeably
to its tenets, you cannot be happy here and hereafter ; and,
in accordance with this precept, it holds up, as objects of
veneration and worship, men of the most exceptionable
lives. They are taught to bow down before the relics of
those whose only merit was an unflinching attachment to
filth and idleness. One saint is regarded as super-excellent,
because he wore his clothes until they ascended from his
back in a living cloud ; another is still more highly esteem-
ed, because he complained not of, nor removed, the cord
which wore its way into his loins; and a third is consi-
dered equally entitled to admiration for having lived forty
years unconscious of the luxury of a clean face
I am supported, my Lord, in this conclusion, by facts
. . . The Catholic Spaniard dies of thirst in the loaded
vineyard ; the Italian subsists, as it were, upon processions
end nravers - and the Catholic of South America is the
poorest and 'airnesc "urtur -r is ever -zaralaa-ent.cet rrs,r
fruitful country These, I may be told, are

examples drawn from enslaved nations ; but is the case
reversed where the people possess political freedom ? In
Switzerland, the inferiority of Papists, when compared to
Protestants, is remarkable. Dr. APNevin, the Popish
traitor, observed it thirty years ago; and M. de Steel
Holstein, within these two years, has borne testimony to
the same circumstance."

The reasoning Nought to bear against the
Catholic Religion is the same as that which
Machiavel urged against Christianity, as com-
pared with Paganism ; that is, men made men
cowardly and slavish by placing the chief merit in
suffering patiently here, referring them for their
reward to another world, and thus giving an
advantage to the knaves, who take advantage of
their disposition to endure. Mr. Hume, in
one of his Essays, points out very ingeniously
the error into which the Florentine Philosopher
fell on this point. The Protestant, as well as
the Catholic, who reads his Bible, sees in it
that it is as impossible for a rich man to enter
the Kingdom of Heaven, as for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle. But does this text
in the least dispose any Protestant to prefer po-
verty to wealth, or prevent him from exerting
himself to become rich ? It is true a lazy man
may urge this text as a justification of his con-
duct ; but the text was not the cause of his la-
ziness, though it serves as flue apology for it.—
Father Labat tells us, that when he was in Spain,
The Peres de la Mercy and myself, when pro=
menading, were always accosted by officers, who
after demanding news or snuff, asked alms from us.
I sometimes expressed my astonishment that an
officer should descend to such a degradation ;
and I told them, that if an officer in France were
to do the like, he would be broken, and ruined
in reputation for ever. They answered, that
every country had its customs ; but that they
were persuaded that there was no dishonour in
demanding alms, as in that they only imitated
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who set the example
of it when he was on earth. He was assisted in
his necessities by the holy women spoken of in
the Gospel, Ministrabant ei de facultatibus
suis." A variety of causes have concurred to
make the Spaniards indolent, and they are glad
of any decent pretext as an excuse for it. We
agree with the author, that many of the books
put into the hands of Catholics by their instruc-
tors, are not adapted to the meridian of a manu-
facturing population ; nay more, that the head
of the Catholic Church, and his Court of Car-
dinals, sanction writings which are a disgrace to
the age. We have just now before us a large
quarto, splendidly printed at Rome in 1749,
being an account of the canonization of five
Saints, by Benedict the Fourteenth ; and the me-
rit of one of these Saints held up as an example
by the Pope is, that " he carried mortification so
far, that he for the most part supported him•
self on mouldy bread and stinking water (pu-
trescentibus aquis) ; that he never took a
cup of wine without corrupting it with ashes,
and half-burnt, putrid, and.filthy vegetables."—
The punishment we would have inflicted on the
Pope and Cardinals for such trash, would have
been to confine them for a month or two to
this diet. But though Popes and Priests have
done much to corrupt mankind, they have not
succeeded to the extent alleged by this writer.
In " The Annals of Agriculture," there are se-
veral essays, by skilful agriculturiats, showing
that the peasantry of Lombardy work harder
than the English ; and that the Swiss, who de-
scend from their mountains to assist them in
summer and- harvest, are unable to keep pace
with the natives: The people of the. mountainous
parts of the Protestant Canton of 13enl, in Swit.