The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-20 00:00:00

ZbirV Ztittion

SUN-OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS,
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—Sir Robert Inglis has thrown his Chu.rch
Extension scheme overboard—" for this
This we expected, and predicted, he woi;:id .10. The
thing was rendered plain, as the itinerant lecturers
Fogy, to the meanest capacity. The pretence for post-
poning it, " the pressure of public business," was too
transparent to conceal tie unwillingness which the Ox-
ford Baronet felt to, place " his Right Hon. Friend at
the head of the Ciovernment" in a fix. The testy replies
which he invariably gave to the Hon. Member for
Lambeth, who from time to time reminded him of his
pledge to bring that important question before the
House, showed that there was anything but pleasant
associations connected with the idea of the discussion.
At length the goaded Baronet actually fixed the day.
The 28th of July—on the very verge of the proroga-
tion, when a House can scarcely be made for the trans-
action of essential business, and the Church and its
champion were in danger of being consigned to the
care of an unmentionable personage by the im-
patient Members who are compelled to remain in
town—this appropriate season was selected by Sir
it. Inglis for procuring suitable attention to the
claims of " the perishing population "-:---actually dying
for lack of the spiritual food which could only be
supplied by an addition to the present number of
churches, and an increase of the Apostolic succession
Clergy, at the public expense. "The most fearful
disease of the land," as the Post designates the alleged
paucity of churches and clergymen, has been allowed
to spread during twelve months that a Conservative
*Government has shed its " happy auspices " over the
scheme for securing an efficient supply of regular
medicine for the malady. And now Sir Robert
Inglis consents to let the Parliament separate without
even mooting the subject on which he tbrmerly em-
ployed the energies of his soul ! A vague, carefully-
balanced set of phrases, by which Sir Robert Peel
proves himself a proficient in the art of using language
for the purpose of concealing his intentions, but in
which there is not a single tangible expression to fix
him to any specific course, are deemed sufficient in-
ducement to the Hon. Member for Oxford University,
who has taken the claims of the Church under his
special care, to abandon his intention, and to resign
the question to the hands of Sir Robert Peel.
STAND AR D.—The arrangement on the subject of
the Poor-laws is, probably, the best that, under the
circumstances, the Government could propose. In
the present state of the public business, and with the
present meagre attendance of Members of the House
of Commons, it would be indecent, and otherwise im-
politic, to resolve finally upon a measure so important ;
even improvements made in such a case would lose
much of their value. The great consideration, how-
ever, is, that the subject must be again opened, and
that, if gentlemen discharge the duty to which so
many have bound themselves upon the hustings,
it will he opened iri its whole extent, so as to render
any arrangement made this session merely temporary
and provisional, the -five years' term nominally as-
signed to the Commissioners among the rest. Now,
the subject has never yet been fairly opened in its
whole extent, not even in 1834—for in the discussion
of that year the question of rating was with exquisite
cunning kept out of sight. Although the care of the
poor was taken from the middle classes and the lower
classes, to whom it had been previously and justly
confided, because these classes bore the bur-
then of supporting the destitute, that burthen was
still more firmly rivetted upon these classes exclu-
sively. The injustice of such a disposition is ap-
parent; for what can be more unjust than that
the capitalist manufacturers—who are the great
artificers of pauperism—should contribute nothing to
the support of the paupers of their creation ?
Early infancy and extreme age are the periods of
life at which aid is required; but the millowner re-
ceives the child, or adult, as- it may be, ready for his
use, without a farthing of expense on his part, and
. when " used up," according to the humane phrase,
throws him back upon his native parish—to die in a
union workhouse. This injustice has been attended
with worse consequences to the poor than even to the
rate-payers, because it has, in part at least, deprived
the farmer of the sympathy of their natural friends.
The humbler classes of rate-payers, who, if the bur-
then of supporting the poor were justly distributed,
would have little to pay, or nothing, are taught to feel
that they have an interest in the cruel parsimony of
which the absolute destitute are the objects; and were
it not so, such cruel parsimony would not be tolerated for
a single year. We trust that this view of the subject
will not be neglected by the country during the re-
cess, and that it will be pressed upon Parliament
when the subject of the Poor-law shall come before
it next Session. Capital ought to be assessed to the
poor-rate. Upon this there can in principle be no
question, and the difficulty of detail which might have
formerly opposed an obstacle to such rating, has been
happily removed by the Income-tax ; the same machi-
nery which can reach capital fir purposes of general
taxation can be made easily available to reach capital
for a poor-rate.

DISTRESS IN THE AGRICUL-
TURAL DISTRICTS.

The following circular may be taken as good evi-
dence of the distress existing in agricultural districts,
as well as in the manufacturingparts of the country :
" County Fire Office,
" London, July 15, 1842.