The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT Or THE PUBLTE JOURNALS.

It might be well if the fabricators .of fictions
observed some moderation in their inventions.
We do not defend Mr. Canning against the
charge of a lofty ambition ; indeed what great
mind was ever without this passion ? But yet
his enemies would impute to him an absurdity in
his aspirations, of which any man of common
sense would be incapable. They say he now
wants to make himself First Lord of the Trea-
sury and Secretary of Foreign Affairs—at once
butler at home, and huntsman abroad. Old
Elwes, the miser, had a fellow that could do
thus much, but the King of England is not so
straitened in circumstances, nor his people so
deficient in talent, but that appropriate persons,
of a liberal and enlightened policy, may be found
for both those places, without clubbing them.—
Times.

Among the Parliamentary Papers just come
forth is a brief one, containing a list of the Joint
Stock Banking Companies which have been
established under the Act passed a year ago.
Our readers will recollect this Act ; it allowed
of banking firms in England upon a rambling
kind of plan, according to which half a county
might be partners in the ratio of their deposits.
The scheme does not appear to have been much
acted on ; as, in fact, there are but three Banks
established oh the principle—one at Lancaster,
one in Norfolk, and one at Huddersfield ; for
though two others are mentioned, yet as they
contain severally but 8 and 10 partners, they
may rather be referred to the old system, in
which, though only six partners were allowed to
be named as constituting the firm, it rarely oc-
curred that others had not some feeling in its
concerns. Of the success of these three or five
Banks, we of course know nothing ; but we
should think that the stability of country Banks
is considerably increased in consequence of their
doing but little business, and the partners hav-
ing in consequence less means to speculate, or
pursue dishonest courses. But we must say
further, that the more private country Banks
have been discouraged by the measures of Go-
vernment, the more ought the proceedings of
the grand establishment, whose power is thus
strengthened, to be laid open to public inspection
and watched.—/bid.
We presume that men of all creeds and opi-
nions will allow the great importance of cherish-
ing in a people a love of truth. Whether we
take-Revealed Religion for our guide, or
,em-
brace the opinions of the transcendental mo-
ralists, or choose the Epicurean System, as
modified by Mr. Bentham, we must equally
allow the force of the obligation to adhere to
truth. Insincerity is destructive of all confidence
between man and man ; and society could not
even exist without a certain measure of regard

for truth.
" All the confidence we can ever have (says Mr. Ben•
that fu the invaluable work with which he has just en-
riched the world, his ' Rationale of Judicial Evidence,',
or hope to have in mankind, either under the law or with•
out the lac'---all the reliance we can place on the expecta-
tion we entertain of any of the innumerable and daily ser-
vices, obligatomr or free, which we stand in need of for the
anstentation and oornibrt of our existence—all depends by
a connection, more or less close and immediate, on the pre-
ponderance of men's disposition towards the side of veracity
and truth. The force of the moral or popUlar sanction co-
inciding-, in the main, With the force of general interest;
hence it is, that throughout the whole field of intercotiTle
between man and matt, in every state of society (the rudest
not excepted) the moral or popular sanction in, with
here and there a casual exception, found in action con-
stantly on the side of truth. Of the degree of force with
which the moral or popular sanction acts in support of the
law or rule of veracity, a more striking or satisfactory ex-
emplification cannot be given' than the infamy which so
universally attaches upon the character of liar, and the vio-
lent and frequently unsupportable provocation given by any
one who, in speaking to, or in the presence of another, ap-
plies to Ilr*.m that epithet.
" There has not, I suppose, exited any where, at any
time, a community—certainly there exists not among the
civilized communities with which we have intercourse—
one in which the appellation of a liar is not a term of re-
proach. Among the most egregious and notorious liars
that ever existed, I cannot think that there can ever have
been a single individual to whom it must not have been a
cause of pain, as often as it happened to him, to hear the
appellation applied to himself; to whom it would not have
been matter of relief and comfort, had it been possible
for him to have disburthened his character from the load
of it."
Yet if ever there was a country in which the
most persevering pains have been taken to
deaden or destroy the regard for truth, that
country is England.
~ The whole system of judicial procedure (says Mr.
" Bentham ;:n the work above alluded to), is one continued
tissue of lies, of allowed, protected, rewarded, encouraged,
and even neceqitated lies. In this instance as in every
other, power in pr:.
etection to its magnitude, serves as a
shield, as well to every vice as to every crime. Contempt
is that modification of the punishment of the moral sanc-
tion, that is more paiticularii, attached to the character of
liar ; and more in proportion to its. magnitude—power,
though it affords not protection agiL'ost hatred, affords it
effectually against contempt. Hence it ie, that as well the
mercenary advocate, whose trade and occupation consist
every where in the sale of lies, as under the-fee-gathering
branch of the English system of procedure, the fee-fed
Judge who deals in the same ware, remains untouched by
that infamy, with which, if the dictates of the popular
sanction coincided uniformly with the dictates of general
utility, they would be covered ; and by which the occa-
sional and unprivileged liar, whose lies are many hundred
times less frequent, is overwhelmed. The power consti-
tutes a vantage ground, by which the head of him who is
.stationed on it, is raised above the flood in which the uti-
diEhyinguished, but less guilty herd are drowned."
In the case of University Oaths, it is known
to those who administer them, that there is not a
single Student who will not openly and undis-
guisedly violate those very Statutes which he has
olernnly invoked, eternal vengeance upon his
head if he does not rigidly observe. The
on of a belief in certain articles
solemn declarat;.
-which have at or; .° time been interpreted in
one sense, and another' time in another sense, is
made the condition of adlrliS3loll into an. Establis-
hment possessed of a large share of the wealth
of the country, and of holding dices under the
Government or in Corporations. The conse-
quence with regard o these Tests is the same
nearly as that- with regard to University oaths,
they are almost universally disregarded, and the
expression of belief has come to be considered a
mere matter of convenience. The proceedings
of the Synod of Ulster afford an instance of the
manier in which the system for the propagation
of mendacity works. All the Clergymen exa-
mined by the Parliamentary Commissioners, al-
low that sine e Arianism had become a less po-
pular doctrine titan Calvinism, the Arian Clergy
concealed their segJ opinions ; and when a test
was openly proposed, though the lowest estimate
made the number of the Arians 35, yet the
whole body took the Trinitarian Test. When.
the Dissenters' .illarriage Bill was discussed in
the House of Lords, Lord Eldon expressed his
stfong abhorrence of the denial by the Unitarians
of the Divinity of our Saviour. Had this abhor.
rence been expressed by a scholar acquainted
with the question, which is one on which many
learned and able men, profoundly skilled in the
original language and the evidence derived from
the writings of the first centuries, have dif-
fered, it wouleVitgetpcen intelligible. But the
Lord Clpfeello onitt ,OP his own profesd
sion,
,QTI(Qt the i . tmen (who has had
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