The Sun.
London, England, 1820-01-25 00:00:00

POLD.

; therefore, in the course of events, his
Royal flightless nifty be, by succession, a Guar-
kian to a female Sovereign.

MENIOIR OF tifS ROYAL IfIZAINESS THE LATE
DUKE OF KENT.

His Royal High-nes% was the fourth son and fifth child ofl
his Mojesty : he was born on the 2tl of Novenaber, 1767, and
was consequently in the 53d year of his age. He was educated
in part oath r the present Bishop of Salisbury; but in the'
lath year of hiy age went to Germany for the completion of
his studies, and resided successively at Luneburg and Hano-
ver, until October, 1787, when he removed, by his Majesty's
command, to Geneva,and there remained till he bad-completed
ltis4weitty-second year. In January, 1790, his Royal Highness
ke-visited England, but for a few days only, proceeding im-
kediately, in a military character, to Gibraltar, whence, in
sray 1791, lie went to Canada. From this station he proceeded,
in December 1793, through the United States, to the West
ludic:, to juin the army under the late Lord Grey, and -was
kpresetat at the reduction_ of St. Lucie on the 4th of April fol-
!lowing. At the close of the campaign of 1794, the Duke of
Keatt, pursuant to his Majesty's commands, returned to'Bri-
Ifish North America, and served at Halifax as Major-General
{till 1796, and as Lieutenant-General till October 1798, when,
11n consequence of a severe fall from his laorse, he was obliged'
ito return to England.

In April 1799, his Royal Highness was created a Peer by
the titles of Duke of Kent and Strathern, and Earl of-Dublin,
and I.btaitied,a,Parliamentary establishment adequate to the
support of his new dignities. The following month he was,
promoted to the rank of General in the army, and appointed
ununa►alrt in Chief in North America.- to which destination
he Proce;d;tl in July; but ill health again obliged him to!
return, add he arrived in England in the autumn of 1800.
In March 18014 his Royal Highness was appointed Governor
in Chief of the important fortress of Gibraltar, which olEce
he held till the time of his decease. In May, 1802, be wentl
to preside there lei person, and exerted himself very laudablr
to suppress the lies-With/attest and dissipation of the wine
houses, Which had been found highly prejudiCial to military!
discipline. These regulations, however, occasioning great
dissatisfaction among the soldiery, who proceeded to some
acts'of Violence on the occasion, his Royal Highness thought
it advisable to return to England in May, ‘803,-Where he con-
tinued to reside till August 1816, when economical views led
him to the Continent. Here he continued, residing princi i 7
pally at Drussels, until May, 1818, on the 19th of which month'
lie was married at Coburg, according to the Lutheran rites, to!
her Serene Highness Victoria Maria Louisa, youngest daugh-
ter of the late reigning Duke of Saxe-Cohurg,' widow of his
late Serene Highness the Prince of LeiningCn; and sister of
his Royal Hizhness the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, the chosen!
husband of our much lamented Princess Charlotte. ThH
Royal Pair shortly after the solemnity arrived in England,,
and were re-married, according to the rites of the English
Church, at Kew Palace, on the 11th of July, 181 8. Perse-
vering in the economical plan which lie had laid down before
his nr4rriage, the Duke, a few weeks after this second cere-
, ninny, returned with his Royal Bride to Arnorbach, the resi-
dence of the Duke of Leiniogen, which the Duchess, who was
left by the will of her late husband Guardian of her Son (a
minor) and Regent of the Principality (iring his minority,
had occupied as her residence during her minority. It
was during their Royal Highnesses' retirement at this spot,
that the Duchess proved to ,be pregnant; and As her Royal
Highness fully concurred in the sentiments entertains(' by
her illustrious Consort, as an Englishman, that her child
ought to draw its first breath on English-ground, they both
re-visited this country, where the Duchess gave birth to a
daughter named Alexaudrina Victoria, who was born at
Kensington Palace on the 24th of May, 1819. His Royal
Highness, a very few weeks ago, took his Duchess and
their lovely offspring into Devonshire, to give them
the benefit of its purer air and milder climate ; but un-
happily fell himself a victim to a sudden attack of
pulmonary inflammation, produced by accidental cold. At
the time of his death, besides the of and dignities which,
we have already enumerated, his Royal Highness was invested
with those of a Knight of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Pa-
trick, a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, Keeper and Paler of
Hanipton Court Park, Colonel of the Royal Scots Regiment
lof Foot, and since the year 1805, a Field Marshal in the airulH

MISSIONARY MBETING,-The Annual Meeting
of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, for the send-
ing out, and support of Missionaries in Conti,
mental India, Africa, and the West India Islands,
as held yesterday evening, in Great Queen-streeil
Chapel, J03K141 BUTTERWORTH, Fs(l. ill the
Chair, surrounded by several eminent Divines and
oilier Gentlemen. The Chairman opened the bu.
3iness of the evening in a short speech, after
which the Report was read, and was highly gra-
t hying ; it detailed the labours of the Missiouaries,,
and the general success they had met with. Tlie
Repot t closed by praying for additional aid, that
greater exertions might be used to Bread 011.1
knowledge of Gon and his Holy %%Torii. Several
Gentlemen in the course Of the evening wade able
speeches in' behalf of the Society.

Persons who have friends in India niRY he g18(11
to learn, that, by a recent regulation, Newspapers
•
can be sent to the East lt►dies, ul►on the previousi
payment of one penny for each, to be folded and
directed as Newspapers for the English hasto• I

FOR 11-1 E SUN.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

{Continued from our Paper of the 17th iust4

Having demonstrated the influence of Religion
upon our Constitution, and the security of life
and person which is thereunder enjoyed ; our next
enquiry is, into the power of acquiring and retsin-
ling property.

IThis, like all our other privileges, is to be re-
ferred to the grand and pervading principle, which
I had designed for the close of our discussion ;
ibut which the very nature of the subject forced
upon me in its commencement.—The equality of
the Law. It was as impossible to prove the ex-
istence of our constitutional privileges, without
'its primary recognition, as it is to enjoy any one
right without its protection. The King does not
(right
his Crown, or the Peer his dignity, by a
claim more valid than that which assures the
humblest peasant in his life, his person, and his
cottage. Had the British Constitution provided
different laws for different classes, k would have
deviated from the religion whereon it was found-
ed, and from the equality of all created mankind
,under their Creator.

Every matt is privileged to acquire property.
IThe means of its acquisition are left to himself;
but while the Law only protects him in the exer-
tion, without compelling him to it, Religion
offers hint instruction anti encouragement. The
means are diligence, sobriety, and frugality. Of
course, I speak but of honest means, as both the
Law and Religion forbid any other, and, who so
degenerates from the three means which 1 have
described, can never make himself rich without
dishonesty.
" The children of this world are iu their gene-
ration wiser than the children of light." If the
'Radicals in their malice deny themselves even
reasonable indulgences and comforts, for the sake
of iiijuring the State ; let .the well-disposed prac-
tice the same lesson for,its good, and for their
own. The self-denial, of idle gratifications will
make every man wiser, and happier, and better,
and richer. A friend declares this truth, an
enemy teaches it. It is well to bear our friends,
equally well to learn front our enemies.
The security of property is the inducement ctits.
acquisition. No man would labour, if the fruits
of his toil were liable to be wrested from him by
,a stronger band, or by unjust authority. To this
injustice, are to be ascribed the poverty, and the
idleness, and the ignorance, which pervade so
many portions of the globe. In Turkey, for in-
stance, no man dares owu himself rich, as the
emissaries of the Government would immediately
lay hold of his riches. Ot course, l►e cannot im-
prove them. And as that State has not yet learn-
ed the grand political secret--that the wealth of
its subjects is better in their hands than in its
own—every man is afraid of being thought
wealthy ; his riches are useless, and perhaps
burthensome. Independence, the great motive.to
industry is there unknown ; industry therefore,
and all its concomitant blessings are unknown
also.

It would be of little importance, whether onr
property were at the mercy of arbitrary power or
01 lawless force. We should feel the evil neither
magnified nor lessened by the quality of its
origin. The La-w, however, protects Britons
from either extreme: Happy Britons ! were
they but persuaded of the blessings of its pro-
Itection

The security of property is essential to its ac-
quisition. The wealth which we dare not ac-
knowledge, we cannot employ; and while con-
cealed, it is alike useless to ourselves and to
others. Thus the baneful effects of insecurity
reach from the wealthy to the poor; the one can-
not expend his money, the other cannot earn it ;
the one is destitute, the other is idle. And thus
the circle revolves, until all are blended in the
same universal poverty.
But with the security which exists under our
Constitution, every man is safe. Property finds
its free channel; the rich provide work, the
poor execute it. Thus property is diffused, and
every man finds his share.
Yet more.--7-The poorest among us obtains,
either in his support or the means thereot, a
larger sum from the inequality of property than he
could have derived from its equal division.
There is an instance recorded of a poor man,
who, by singular industry and economy built for
himself an house, and planted a small slip of
ground ; commencing with only fourteen shillings,
and continuing without any other aid than his
own labour and earnings. Bnt ten years passed
before its completion :—and, I most summon the
regard of all who admire, and of all who would
imitate this honest Rini indefatigable creature, to
a most important inference. The equality of pro.
perry would keep every body houseless for ten
years ; and its insecurity would prevent every
body from huilding houses at all. The industri-
ous would pass ten years in toiling to raise a roof
for the slothful-: the honest would devote the
heart of their lives to build walls for the profli-
gate. It on the one hand, unaided poverty kept
BRITTON ABBOTT (that was the poor man's name)
so long in his laborious Work, undistinguished
equality would have disabled him from any labour :
tor, from what source could he have earned *his
support ?

The virtuous perseverance of. this man deserves
our highest eulogy ;—yet, we see, though with-
out arty apparent assistance, he was essentially
furthered by the wealth of richer men, and its in-
direct operation ; a thousand pounds in one hand
is of more use to the community than an hundred
pounds each in ten hands ; more useful still than
one pound ench in a thousand hands. The richer
an individual is, the more extended is the good
which he can do ; and, let malignant falsifiers say
what they please, the mote extended is the good
which be does do, We see this every day, every
hour, exemplified ; not only in those acts of bene-
volence, whose frequency, and whose number, and
whose amount, almost have taken away their

claim upon our observation ; but in the munifi-
cent expenditures, whereby the poorer classes ob-
tain their most valuable means of support, sweet-
ened in its acquirement by industry, and endeared
in its possession by independence.
The state of,society, and also indeed the state
of mortality, is subject to sufferings anti sorrows.
I was about to say—unhappily subject_;—but my
pen was stayed by the reflection, that these were
designed by the Creator, not only as the exercise
of submission toward him, but of affection to-
ward our fellow men. The unequal state of
society necessarily implies the superior wealtb,
and power of some over others : and, once that a
gradation is admitted in society, its boundary be•
comes impossible. Without such inequality, half
the ♦irtues—all indeed—of human nature would
be extinguished ; its kindnesses, its charities, its
affections; nay, all the duties and observance*
of lite would be obliterated in one cheerless and
hopeless blank. There would be no mutuality
among men.

Looking, then, to the great whole, I will not
call the sutrerings'and sorrows of mankind a mat-
ter of regret. As well might we deplore tile ori•
nal fall of man, without which we should not
have seen God in his tenderest point of view, as
lament those calamities which bring forth the
most endearing virtues of man. But, while ine-
quality of rank and wealth is one among the dis-
tinguishing characteristics of our Constitution,
let us thank and bless the Providence, which in-
spired its framers to make HIS religion its found-
ing and pervading principle. That principle hat
turned its danger into its security ; apparent in•
justice into real justice ; and out of the tnisfor•
tunes of humanity has extracted mutual happi-
ness and reciprocal blessing.

[To be continued.]