Star.
London, England, 1830-06-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE JOURNALS.

Ttates.—A good deal of alarm and perplexity has arisen from
the declared intentions of Government to modify the old system of
sugar-duties. Whatever intricacy Mr. Huskisson and Mr. C. Gram
may have anticipated from the scheme of reduction of which the oat.
line was drawn, on Tuesday last, by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, must belong to the details of the measure ; for the principle,
as it seems to us, is plain enough, viz. the proportioning the amount
of tax directly to the marked value of the article ; so that sugar of
Yhs. per cwt. shall no longer pay the same price with sugar of 60s.
The effect proposed by this relaxation of impost on the low-priced
sugar, is the important one of at once relieving that class of con.
sinners by whom the low-priced sugars are purchased, and that class
of cultivators on whose estates the pressure of the old tax has been,
tit meet heavily,—viz. those which are capable of producing no
ether but the coarse kinds of sugar. Undoubtedly, in considering
his bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be presumed to have
given due weight to a branch of the question which was brought by
Mr. Huskisson under the notice of the house—namely, the cape-
diency of so distributing the duties as to pretest the relief of the
:Yarn sugars from working an additional and undue burden upon
those of finer quality. Indeed, the scale is, we think, ingeniously
contrived to counteract such a result. It is obvious to us, from the
whole conduct pursued by the present Administration upon West
India questions, that there is no interest in the empire more likely
to obtain from it a fair, and even favourable, hearing. Mr. Goul-
burn admitted frankly the distressed condition of a certain portion
of our colonies.
Cnaoxrcnt.—The bill appointing a new Chancery Judge!
formed last night the subject of discussion ; but on account of the
importance of the subject, and the lateness of the hour at which die'
discussion commenced, the debate was adjourned to Tuesday next.
The proposition for the adjournment drew from Sir Robert Pod
some fresh remarks on the great waste of the time of the House
which bad taken place that evening, in the discussion of matters of
comparatively small importance, with respect to which, however,
every one had something to say. The truth is, that the sort of
business to which the Right Honourable Gentleman objects is the
cnly business for which the House is fit. An assembly of six or
seven hundred individuals is necessarily a mob, and quite unfit for
discussion and deliberation in the true sense of the words. In the
early period of the history of the House its inherent defect was not
so manifest, from the circumstance of the great body of members
being unused to speak, and serving merely as a sort of audience to
witness the performance of the few actors on the scene. During the
war of the revolution the engrossing business was war and taxes,
n7:l all questions of change of our laws and institutions were post.
poned to a period of peace. The habits of the war continued for a
short period after the peace; but the latter opened up a new field in
the numerous changes in our laws and institutions which the altered
circumstances of the country imperiously called for. Numberless
interests throughout the country were affected by the measures agi.
tired from time to time, and hence petitions without number were
poured in on the House. A member, who might shrink from par.
ticipating in a general discussion, cannot refuse to enforce the peti-
..ion of his constituents, and by degrees he becomes satisfied with
himself, and a frequent speaker on all subjects. There is hardly
row a member of the whole assembly who has not addressed it at
times. Now nothing is such an impediment to dispatch as numerous
speakers. Jefferson observes, that they got on very well with business
in the Old Congress; but after the peace, when Congress became a nu.
mcrous representative body (though still a small body compared to
the House of Commons,) and chiefly composed of lawyers, the time
was consumed in speaking. Sir R. Peel must make inability to
.peechify a necessary qualification for Parliament, or things will
proceed from bad to worse. When there were few speakers and
many listeners in the House, the house had only patience fora mo.
derate quantity of eloquence at a time; and hence the dislike
of Burke, who was called the " Dinner Bell," on account of his
long speeches sending the Members to dinner. But when Mem-
bers have themselves to thank, they must bear with the infirmi-
ties of others ; a man must, however reluctant, offer up a sacrifice
to the self.love of others, that he may indulge his own self-love.
No rational being who looks with any attention at such an Assem-
bly as the House of Commons--a mere overgrown Club—could
cver expect any other result than that which Sir Robert now
laments. Three or four well.informed and laborious individuals
tray proceed with legal Reforms, without impeding each other too
much by the discussion which their different modes of viewing
points may render neceusary. But let us suppose that
the labour and research of an extensive Legal Reform has been
!evolved on a Commission, and that a Bill embodying the
fruit of the labours of the Commission is submitted to Parlia-
ment, besides the discussions on the principle, every clause
ens up interminable discussions—The Bill undergoes a num.
her of modifications in the Committee—Some of the changes
are at variance with the parts of the bill retained, and with other
cLanges ; and the bill has become an assemblage of incongruities.
A re.cornmitment becomes necessary. If the bill ever become a
law, no two men, perhaps, can agree as to the meaning of some of its
:louses. No numerous assembly an ever legislate to any advantage.
The questions of peace or war, and taxation—complaints of griev.
snces may come with advantage before it. The nation would not
be satisfied without an Assembly which should represent the general
feeling on such matters. But at present Parliament is everything.
It is a court of law—a legislative body—it decides on all questions
eomestic or colonial. There is hardly a conceivable object which
may not be brought under discussion in it. Hence the anarchy
Thiel) prevails—hence the helplessness which have lowered it so
rinich in the eyes of the nation, and made popular bodies generally
ri•liculous.
II E UAL 0.--We are glad to observe that the practice of compelling
British soldiers on foreign stations to do homage to Pagan and idols.
rims ceremonies has become a subject of Parliamentary animadver-
t:cu. Several petitions have recently been presented to the House
of Commons, praying for an abolition of this unjustifiable practice,
-...-il v..c. have not perceived that any member of Government has been
!-olii enough to undertake its defence ; yet it is not many years since
a British Officer was dismissed the service fur refusing to as-
!me an old idol at Malta, to which popular adoration is paid at
attain seasons. In this the Officer certainly showed more
trend for conscience than discipline ; lie was guilty of
r. disobedience of orders, and liable to the penalties provided for
an .-1.1 of insubordination by the articles of war. But what a cruel
thing it is to reduce men who are able and willing to serve their
:cuntry—who are ready to face every peril, to undergo any hard.
ship, and to shed their blood at any moment in its defence ;....
ring a cruel thing it is, we say, to reduce such men to the alta-
rgive of violating their conscience or incurring the penalties of
di:obedience ! Is a soldier to be, in his religious principles, as well as
al Iris military conduct, a mere machine? Is it necessary for the inter-
ests of the service that he should be so? If that be the case,then the beet
soldiers would be those who entertain no sense of religions' all ! Is this
a lectrine for a moral and christian government tomaintain in the face
(Idle civilised world—or, it the Government, notwithstanding their
nrofessions of zealous devotion to the interests and principles of that
*form of Christianity which constitutes the established religion of
England, remain silent, will the bench of Bishops continue so, and
allow a subserviency to idolatrous ceremonies to be enforced by the
=lntences of the law-military, without raising up the voice of pious
remonstrance against it ? Cannot the Bishop of London see some-
thin:, as reprehensible in this as the profanation of the Sabbath by
the recitations of the poor? Will not the Bishop of Norwich, so
Mir the uncompromising and consistent advocate of liberty of =-
4c:ince in the Roman Catholic people, think it his duty to be
zioally earnest for the recognition of the same invaluable psi.
viege in the Protestant soldier ? Even before what is called C. •S.
tholic Emancipation was mated the 1.4,,•••••• l,"41,1.01"-sum""i' `9144/
•01—..1 ,„ —arra ineir own places of worship, out of a proper de&
roue to the religious feelings of that class of men. Why, then, should
Pr:ter:ant soldiers and officers be compelled to perform acts of wee.
'hip tP wooden images--the objects of the superstitious veneration of
:he Roman Catholic populace—idols to which the better-educated
itotuan Catholics themselves would, probably, be ashamed to olio
'!:e external marks of adoration ? It is one thing to punish a and.
lia for insulting the religious feelings or prejudices of a foreign pea
7:e, and it is another to punish him for refusing to degrade himself
''Y a hypocritical communion in rites and ceremonies for which'!
_.: viii entertain no respect. It does credit to Lord Killeen—him.
'ii: 3 Roman Catholic—that he supported the petition which Mr.
Tram presented trout Dover on this subject the other night. It
,hows that he is willing to obtain for others that religious freedom
%licit lie was so anxious to procure for himself. But where were
•Ie many great advocates for liberty orconscience on this occasion ?
`lll,Porirrg a Roman Catholic Officer was dismissed the service for
%ft:sin,: to join in some rite of Protestant worship abroad, what an
..myry there would be immediately raised in the newspapers and
',‘,:ri houses of Parliament ! How the changes would be rung upon
religious tiranny, in all the vocabulary of invective ! But few are
'he patriots who find a heart or a tongue to demand for the Preto-
/
tart soldier emancipation from that thraldom which denies him
the right of religious opinion, which even our Indian Go-
/eminent concedes to its eastern slaves--for it was stated in the
!louse of Commons that, during the Marquis Wellesley' s govern-
ent in India, some Sepoys had been, on one occasion, cow pelle_d
to attend divine service—but, when it was made known to his Lord-
'hili, he condemned, in the strongest terms, the conduct of the
Anlimanding officer. One of the few Members of Parliament who
reprobated the practice of ordering our soldiers to join in idolatrous
_tremolos was Lord Milton, who observed that, if a soldier himself,
"e could most assuredly object to being compelled to do honour to
:chenille rites that were consideredidolatrous; but, if be were a
4oldier whose livelihood depended on his commission, how bitterly
'gild he feel the compulsion I Such a poetics is a cruelty to; the
slender of his country, and a degradation to the British name.

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