The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-08 00:00:00

rtg .'k- ult.

LONDON :
SATURDAY MORNING. OCTOBER s, 1842.

It is boldly said by all those who now advocate
increasing the power of the priesthood, disguised
under the name of the Church, that they alone
can cope with the moral disorders of society, or,
to borrow the language of M. DE LA MARTINE,
give a soul to manufactures. • The Church of
England, w:, are emphatically told, can alone
save the State ; and she alone can introduce and
maintain moral order in society. Those who
maintain these opinions must be blind as moles,
and as ignorant. They confine their eulogy to
the one Church, and if their doctrine were true,
there could ho no order in society, no morality,
no genuine religion, where that one Church did
not prevail. The rotesque absurdity of these
mighty Arai es flashes upon us irrepressible
laughter, when we remember how small a por-
tion of time and space is filled by the English
priesthood, and that human society spreads
over the globe, and exists beyond the re-
cords of man. Everywhere and in all time
has society existed, and flourished in various
degrees ; the English Church (priesthood)
is the creature, as it were, of yesterday ;
and, till within a very short period, was nearly
confined to this small island. Yet we are told
that society cannot exist and flourish without the
priesthood, and dearly must we pay, in our liber-
ties and our fortunes, to maintain theta in power
nod splendour.
At the same time, these imprudent advocates
boast of a great present revival in the Church,
or of new-born zeal in the priesthood. They
tell us that, " the Church has been frozen
into the accidental formulae of two hun-
dred years" since ; and they give us to under-
stand that, during that period, its great healin,.
powers have been almost dormant. Be it so;
•what has happened in society, while the Church
has been asleep? Has human improvement
stood still ? Have not the most wonderful ad_
fiances, both moral and physical, been made
-within the last two centuries ? Have not our
lii ertis, both civil and religious, grown up and
bee.a confirmed within that period ? Does not
to:eration, in its most enlarged and beneficial
set:e, date from less than two centuries? and
has ;r jot been, in spite of the Church, carried
out so as to include at length in form, if not yet in
substance, the Roman Catholics within the Con-
stitution ? Have not the last remnants of serfdom,
without the especial help of the priesthood, been
swept away within that period ? Has not liberty
been given to the slave, and has not the accursed
slave trade been reprobated and branded by the
instrumentality of men who did not derive their
humanity and morality from the Church? War
has been humanised, and law has been made
less sanguine and less unjust, while the
Church has been frozen in its old for-
In every department of morals,
great improvements have been made with-
in the last 200 years, and made in opposition
to the Church. Though it might have been
during that period, as the Times avers, asleep for
good, it was active in mischief; for the priest-
hood, holding fast by the love of a past age, were,
and must be, at all times the enemies of social
improvement.

.
While the Church was asleep the North
jtmerican colonies grew into power, and have
now established with England an extensive corn-
ineVey which binds the two
may f
greatest and re ebset
natis,lis of the world -in peace, whatever
desirod by their rulers. Trade has within two
ceramics s
elone much to soften national
asperities,
and eurthe,lt all mankind into one happy brother-
hood. Art hits given us the steam-engine, and
science has un veiled the true form of the globe.
Spinning nudes,• safety lamps, and gas lights,
with a crowd oLI other useful inventions, have
added wonderful] N.- 10 the power, and, we be-
lieve, to the liappi,3es o: man during the slum-
ber of the priesth r. od. So vast has been the
progress in knowledtv:e durinef the last two cen-
turies, and so astoun ding the inventions of art,
that Inure marvels, m e believe are crowded into
that period of history, than into all the prior
ages of the world. i,Vhile the Church, there-
fore, according to its :advocates, was asleep, so-
ciety has made prodigious advances, both moral
and physical.

We cannot say much for its progress since the
Church had its revival. As the priesthood have
increased in zeal, the people have fallen into
povexty. If their mminfluence should be
felt avly where
it is in
,rarliament, where they

hive seats, and where their votes place
Members ; but nowhere is injustice more gla-
ringly, systematically, and unblushingly per-
petrated than in Parliament. The Bishops of Ox.
FORD, and EXETER, and LONDON, in their burn-
ing zeal to reform the people, utterly forget to
reform themselves. Corn-laws to keep out food,
when the population is exceeding the home
supply, and new Poor-laws to make the people
feed themselves, are nearly coeval with the
boasted revival of priestly zeal and Church
discipline. From the unscrupulous demands
of the clergy dissension and strife, in the form
of Church-rates have sprung up in nearly half
our parishes. Judging from the examples of
other countries, and from the condition of
our country at present, we are inclined
to say that the increase and the activity of
the priesthood are rather signs of corruption
and decay than of living health and vigour. If
there be no other means of rescuing our people
from physical and moral degradation, as the
Tories say, than the agency of the
.Church—if
that alone can raise the physical and moral con-
dition of the people then must England
speedily tread the downward path of Italy, and
English Filicajos will, ere long, have to lament
over beauty and wealth, which tempt the
spoiler, while her sons will want union and
energy to resist him.

It is now about twelve years since the first
railroad was opened in England, and at present
we have, probably, not far short of a thousand
miles of such roads completed, and in use. They
have been constructed to a considerable extent
in Belgium and Germany, but in Fiance none
have yet been completed except the short line to
Versailles. It has recently been said that no
contractors will undertake to make the railroad
to Belgium, the French engineers are so ex-
tremely precise and fastidious, while the line
between Rouen and Paris is to be nearly half
completed by English hands and English capital.
We rejoice amazingly that our countrymen are
contributing to the prosperity of France but do
not these filets indicate a great slowness and re-
luctance to advance in our enlightened neigh-
bour ? France is far surpassed by Belgium and
Germany, while England herself is probably
surpassed in this respect by the United States of
America.

What is the cause of this slowness in France ?
We believe it is mainly to be found in what
sonic persons call the goodness of its Govern-
ment. It regulates everything. It provides for
so much that it puts an end to individual enter-
prise. The Government cannot possibly per-
form
all things; and yet such is its system, or
such its jealousy, that it will not allow the people
to do anything except under its direction.
We inserted on Wednesday an account of the
slow progress in completing the Artesian well at
Grenelle, ia consequence of the Government
having made a regulation that every grant by a
Aunicipality must be confirmed by a Minister.
" Under this system," it is said, "a :own cannot
make a new street, or a new market, or appoint
a manager to a theatre, without the consent of
the Minister, and months sometimes elapse be-
fore this can be obtained." In France the muni-
cipalities regulate a much greater number of
matters than our municipalities, and what would
become of us if every alteration in our towns—
every grant from the funds of every borough and
every parish, must be approved of by Sir JAMES
GRAIL AM or the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER
The endless intrigues to which such a system
must give rise, employing all the time and talent
of the nation, not in making improvements, but
in seeking the fitvour of a Minister, is one of its
evils. Another is, that it makes individuals help-
less ; and whenever a work is to be achieved
which requires combination, they can do nothing
but flee to the Government for aid. The system
may be good for the rulers—it emasculates the
people.

We tender these remarks to our neighbours in
the best and most friendly spirit. We wish to
see France flourish in peace, increase in trade,
and contribute her full share, by her own
progress, to the general improvement. French
journalists, we are afraid, are jealous of the great-
ness of England. They see our language spread-
ing by our colonies over the habitable globe;
they see our shipping crowd every sea ; they see
the comparative feebleness and littleness of
French trade; and they jump to the conclusion
that their backwardness is caused by our pro-
gress. They accuse us of all kinds of secret en-
mity, and openly say that our humane zeal in
suppressing the slave-trade is only a pretext to
vex, cripple, and destroy, the mercantile marine
of France.

We honour in them the desire for commercial
greatness as we honour it in our own country-
men; but as we are sure that our success does
not depend on the regulations of other
Governments, so the French may be
assured that their condition is not in any manner
the consequence of the conduct of England.
Their laudable wish should take another direc-
tion. They should begin at home. They should
repress and curb the operations of the French
Government and encourage individual enter-
prise. They should refuse, rather than court,
the interference of the Ministry in all the affairs
of life. When they have set themselves free
from the thraldom of their own bureaux, they
will soon lose all pretexts to complain of Eng-
land. By the enterprise of individuals nations
are made prosperous, and the acts of the Go-
vernment will never till the fields or load the
ships of France.

We regard the news brought by the Overland
Mail, though meagre, as, on the whole, favourable.
They come, be it remembered, not direct from
the Indian Government or English correspon-
dents, but through a French medium, which,
from mistake or design, has generally given an
incorrect and unfavourable view of the state of
affairs in our Eastern empire. According to
the previous telegraphic despatch, " sickness and
want of provisions were decimating the army" in
Affghanistan, and discontent among the troops
was at its height, allwhich statements were utterly
devoid of truth; and we are, therefore, warranted
in attaching little importance to the modified ac-
count that " sickness still prevails among the
different divisions of the army," as well as to the
assertion that more men had been lost in taking
possession of a small place like Chapoo than
in any other affair with the Chinese. One fact,
however, appears certain, that the army west of
the Indus had been ordered to march on Caubul
in opposition to the opinion and direct instruc-
tions of the Governor-General of India. When
Lord ELLENBOROUGH was appointed to the
office which he now holds we had great mis-
givings as to his judgment, spirit, and
general qualifications for such an impor-
tant trust, and the orders issued by him for
the recal of the army certainly justified the
worst suspicions. He is an eloquent speaker, and
may possibly have been a useful mart of
business when under the guidance and con-
trol of an able chief ; but as regards moral
courage under difficulties, grand conceptions,
energy, and dignified appearance a mat-
ter of some importance in the East —few
men would give him any credit for being pre-
eminent. Had he been allowed to follow the
bent of his timid mind the English army
would have been for ever disgraced, our
vast possessions in India seriously endan-
gered, and the treacherous barbarian, who
had murdered unoffending women and
helpless soldiers in thousands, been exalted to the
highest honours. TA is fortunate, therefore, that
there are men in the Cabinet of a different stamp,
who have some regard for the honour of their
country, and some sympathy for the sufferings
and shame of British soldiers. We do not take
into account the absolute justice or the expe-
diency of the war. It may have been necessary
for the safety of our Eastern empire; or not ; we
look simply to the fact that a truce was entered
into, arms and ammunition were given up, and a
solemn engagement made that our troops should
pass through the country unmolested. The
awful result it is needless to recount. Inde-
pendent, however, of the disgrace, every one
bLord ELLENBOROUGH must be aware of the
unfavourable avourable impression such a retreat from that

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