The Sun. — London, England, 1832-06-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The .English Reform Bill, after a national struggle of unparalleled ardour and difficulty, re ceived the Royal Assent, by Commission, yes terday afternoon. To the people it mattered little in what form the King gave his consent ; but it deeply concerned his Majesty that his Royal will should have been communicated to his subjects in person. We shall, however, make no further allusion to the prosy character of the assent, than to repeat that the King must be under the influence and control of courtiers and domestic connexions, which' have most un happily overpowered his own better feelings and judgment. Of his Majesty's sincere and con tinued determination in favour of the Reform Bills, we do not doubt ; indeed the integrity of the King, we have reason to believe, by recently insisting on the adoption of their essential parts by any new Cabinet, occasioned the desperate and unprincipled conduct of the Duke of Wel lington in his Grace's attempt to form a pre tended Reform Administration. The Royal Family will best consider how they can maintain Monarchical Government and the affections of the people ; if they are to succeed, the evil in fluences alluded to must be removed further from his Majesty's ears. '1 here are great allowances to be made for a Monarch secluded from the public, and all the ordinary channels of political truth ; but his Majesty is under obligations of no ordinary kind to the people, who have not only freed him by the fall of the Borough mongers, but in times of extraordinary excite ment have maintained a moral grandeur of ex ertion and position unexampled in the history of nations. 'We should he at this moment loth to draw any invidious parallel between the two countries of Great Britain and France ; but the superiority of the movement of minds over that of bodies, is too apparent and gratifying to escape observation.—Morning Chronicle. We call the attention of our readers to a reso lution of the Council of the Birmingham Poli tical Union, passed on Tuesday last, to be found in our advertising columns, the recommenda tions in which are worthy of that enlightened body. Without presuming to dictate to their townsmen the course to be adopted on the pass ing of the English Bill of Reform, they think that, " in accordance with the profession of act ing upon generous and magnanimous principles, it would be inconsistent in them to take the lead in any demonstration of public rejoicing, until the Royal Assent be given to the three Bills of Reform for England, Scotland, and Ireland, upon which occasion they are of opinion that a grand and magnificent display of national joy and triumph should take place in this town." It It is by union alone that we have defeated the conspiracies of the Tories, and reestablished the Whig Ministry in power. It is by union alone that we have produced that iwpression on the Lords that led to the majorities in favour of the Reform Bill, which, as far as England is con cerned, is now, thank God, the law of the land. Let us be united to the end, and, when we have fought the good fight fairly out, the people of the three kingdoms, who have one common in terest in the success of each other, may then meet in expressions of joy, for the consummation of the glorious work.—Morning C'hronicle. The Boundary Bill last night supplied Mr. Crofter with a text for that sort of small wit in which he delights. The Right Hon. Gentle man was quite in ecstasy that Old Sarum had been preserved, though merged in the bounda ries of the borough of Wilton. " By the Boun dary Bill now before the House, it was found necessary to add certain parishes to Wilton, in order to give it a sufficient constituency, and among them he found that very Old Saram, with its burgage tenures, of which he had heard so much from the Noble Lord opposite. It was true, Old Sarum was preserved under another name ; but Old Sarum had just as good a title, from the number of its houses and its population, to have had Wilton added to it, as Wilton had to swallow up Old Sarum." -What a noble sub ject of triumph ! There is a great deal of this misplaced ingenuity in the speech of the Right Hon. Gentleman. Of what consequence is it whether Old Sarum is or is not in the limits of a borough, if the borough be free from the qualities which made Old Sarum such a re proach to our representation ? The ground and houses of Old Sarum are as good as ground and houses of the same description any where else, when divested of the noxious quality of ex clusive franchise. But the great forte of the Right Hon. Gentleman consists in the display of a sort of petty ingenuity in distorting and misre presenting facts, by which he obtains a triumph of a moment, and only a moment, because a plain statement soon puts him down. Thus, for instance, by taking a certain number of towns in Schedule B, and a certain number allowed to return two members,—by leaving out certain parts comprehended within the boundaries of the latter, he makes it appear that the former possess more population and assessed taxes. We had already more than enough of this in the Com mittee on the Reform Bill. But the Right Hon. Gentleman has been led by the recent in surrection of Paris, and the anomalies in the Boundary Bill, to abandon the hope he once had, that the Reform Bill would in time be assimilated with our habits, and assimilated with our pre-existing institutions. How will ever the people submit to such monstrous anomalies ! They will, of course, languish for the days of Gatton and Old Sarum, as the Jews in the Wilderness sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. It is much easier to criticise a measure like the Reform Bill than to show in what manner more good could have been done without utterly dis regarding existing institutions.—Morn. Chron. It will be seen in another column, that we have received by an extraordinary express the Paris Morning Papers of Wednesday, and a private letter from our correspondent, giving an account of the state of things in that capital to four o'clock on \S ednesday afternoon. By our private letter we regret to see that the insurrection had been renewed, and that it appeared to be even more formidable than it had been on the preceding night. The very circumstance of its renewal in broad day, and under the eyes of the authorities, is a lamentable proof of its dange rous character. It is possible, however, that the nature of the commotion, formidable as it is, may have been exaggerated by those who describe it ; and in so saying, we are far from intending to cast a reflection on them : for who possesses a mind that will not be excited beyond just con trul in the centre of tumults such as those which now agitate Paris ? Poverty and mi sery, we are convinced, have had a power ful influence in creating these disturbances, by which the poverty and misery (if human suffer ing can be so far extended) will only be aggra vated tenfold. Want has supplied intriguers and agitators with ready agents prepared for all violence• The cry of « Vive la Republique" \vas first and most frequently heard ; as if the Republic conferred happiness on France while it was established there. The wretched emi grant family has_ also its partisans, though more fearful, and acting with more caution, than the others; as if such a creature as Charles X. could repair the mischiefs which his haughty imbecility had created. The present King is not popular, and the advantages of a settled con stitutional monarchy do not obtain consideration enough on occasions of popular commotion to repair the absence of affectionate loyalty. Thank Heaven that our Reform Bill is safe ! Let us rest quiet. We have nothing to do with the internal troubles of Paris or France. We see that some of th e accounts speak of foreign influence as exciting the mischief. The charge is absurd. The National Guard are said in some, not all the accounts, to have united themselves generally, and with zeal, to the troops of the line, in the work of putting down the revolt. 'I he only ludicrous part of the proceeding, was the running away of the omni buses as fast as they could run, lest they should be converted into barricades. From this new and extraordinary tumult in Paris at the funeral of a republican General, where his friends en deavoured to gain the political ascendency ; and from the rising in the west, where the Carlists have revolted against the new dynasty, on the score of oppression, one would almost suppose that a regular Government in France was impossible. At least it must be admitted, that the secret has not yet been found out, or carried into effect, of satisfying the extreme fac tions into which that country is divided. The infamous conduct of the partisans of the fallen dynasty, in originating resistance or fomenting disturbances for the last eighteen months, has, no doubt, been one of the great causes of the present continued fermentation. They had been in possession of power for sixteen years. They had filled all the public offices with their agents. The Church and the Court were devoted to their interests. They alone were known to foreign Governments, and they looked to the employ ments and the honours of the State as their ex clusive patrimony or legitimate monopoly. The terrible blow which their authority received from the paving stones of July, benumbed and con founded their senses for a time, but did not an nihilate their pretensions or extinguish their hopes of future ascendency. Hence the whole host of disbanded placemen,—from the prefets of depart ments down to the most abject sous-prefets,--- from generals of division down to the private soldiers of the Guard,—from rectors of the University down to parish teachers, and all the tribe of Crown lawyers who had served the Bourbons with zeal in their prosecutions,— turned against the new dynasty. Deputies re signed their commissions, and Peers their ho nours, because they were required to take an oath in favour of the new order of things. Emissaries were sent to all the despotic Courts of Europe to intrigue against the new . dynasty, and to preach a crusade against the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Meantime, even the mouvement administration of M. Lafitte, and latterly, the more peremptory cabinet of M. C. Perier, anxious to show to Europe that the re volution of 1830 could attain strength and security without " being baptized in blood on the field of battle," or supported at home by suspensions of law, tried every thing to main tain internal order and to prevent foreign war. But the active minds and sanguine tempers of those who had prepared the people for defend ing their rights, or had led the revolt against their oppressors in 1830, could not be satisfied with this provisional or uncertain state of things. They demanded more vigorous measures, and a more decided course, both in foreign and do mestic policy. Their Carlist enemies had ap pealed to foreign Courts, and had, by their in fluence or intrigues with the Emperor of Russia, postponed the recognition of the new dynasty for three or four months. In the reasonable antici pation that the doctrine of popular sovereignty could not be agreeable to absolute Monarchs, and that their new franchises were threatened by invasion, they had sought the alliance of nations against their rulers, and had thus encouraged revolutionary movements in Poland, in Belgium, in Spain, and in Italy. Hence the Government of Louis-Philippe, in renouncing the Crown of the Belgians, and in refraining to declare war against Austria when her troops passed the Po, to put down the Bolognese patriots in the spring of 1831, acquired the character of timidity or of treachery—became suspected of absolutism, or of being unfaithful to the national honour,—and laid up a store of odium which has increased by the discontent of all the defeated friends of liberty in Europe. Hence we had a continued tumult of four days in Paris for the fall of Warsaw, and saw the Govern ment of France nearly overthrown, because the noble cause of Poland had not been supported by the French arms. But the domestic ques tions. in which the Government was involved were still more embarrassing, and the conduct of the Ministry appeared to the Movement party still more equivocal. Those who considered themselves as the exclusive friends of the revo lution proposed to pass over the whole interval between 1830 and 1790, and to build the work of political change on the basis laid by the Constituent Assembly. The moderate or mo narchical party, on the other hand, wished only to start from the charter of 1814, and to con sider every thing as fixed which was not changed by the modifications which that document un derwent in the two sittings of the Deputies preceding the present King's accession. Hence almost on every subject a diversity of views between the parties of movement and re sistance. The authoritative establishment of the Catholic Church was destroyed to please the former,—its existence and revenues were maintained to satisfy the latter. The former required the abolition of the right of the Crown to nominate Peers, the latter only con sented to the abolition of their hereditary privi leges. The former, in erecting a throne " sur rounded with republican instituttironnnse w ,' professed to understand that s uch a h nearly as cheap as a President's Chair,—the latter insisted on an exo rbitant Civil th List. short, the one meant a republic, and, the other a Monarchy ; and, as the King naturally was more inclined to the latter than the former, in the same proportion his good faith was susyected, and his popularity declined. In opposing the policy of the Government, the press was eve . a more powerful than the tribune, and the Mi nistry increased that power by injudicious and tyrannical attempts to repress it. To such an absurd extent have prosecutions been mul tiplied, that one of the most violent of the Journals has now reached its fiftieth trial in the course of two years, and has had the ho nour of being four times seized in one week. Add to these causes of dissatisfaction the dis turbances at Lyon-, at Strasburg, at Grenoble, and in other towns, the absurd Vendean plot, and its foolish leader allowed to perplex and an noy the country, instead of being instantly and vigorously checked—and we have a frightful mass of discontent, which it only required an un. fortunate accident or a tempting opportunity likt that of Lamarque's funeral to launch against the throne. The declaration of the forty-one Depu ties who lately met at the House of Laffitte, supported by the adhesions of a considerable number of members in the provinces—recapitu lating as it does the whole history of the la't session—and embodying all the objections which had been made to the Government in the speeches of eight or nine months—has no doubt tended to give a decided political direction to any popu lar movement. It is a kind of banner, round which the dissatisfactions of the people may rally. Judging from this among other circumstances, but not pretending to predict with any certainty on our imperfect information, we should be inclined to suppose, that though the King may not be forced to abdicate, he must at least enter into terms with the Movement party, and take a Ministry from their body. 'This will render necessary another appeal to the country, and an appeal to the electoral colleges at the present crisis, may be merely another name for revolution. All the papers which have reached us condemn, though on different grounds, the actors in the tumult. The statements of several of them we have given in another column. The Temps, though an opposition journal, deplores the disasters of the riot, and invites the assis tance of the National Guard to restore order. It ascribes the first disturbances to the reluctance shown by the troops to pay funeral honours to the favourite General of the people; but adds, absurdly enough, that the tumult was aggra vated by the bribes of the English aristocracy. To the gold of Pitt, some friends of the first revolution ascribed all the atrocities with which it was stained. The National speaks out with its accustomed energy and boldness, and states that nothing but a change of system, foreign and domestic, can avert civil war.—Times. Those fears, which, down to the last moment at which any chance existed that they migh t prove ultimately groundless, we had but half dis closed, have since been realized. The King did not give the Royal assent in person to the Charter of 1832, which had been framed and brought forward under his own immediate auspices, and which he had thrice recommended to Parliament in solemn speeches from the throne. The sub stitution of Commissioners for the King in per son has been considered by great numbers of his Majesty's subjects as a demonstration, there fore, that the Prixce, in whom we all implicitly trusted,.is of an opposite creed in constitutional politics from his people. We do not believe this to be the case. As for the substantial wel fare of the country, it matters little what errors may find entrance into the understanding of a limited IVlonarch—limited not in name, but in truth and strictness, by the responsibility of his Ministers,—when that responsibility shall no longer be " a farce," but a solid power in the hands of the nation and its representatives- The maxim of the Constitution, that " the King can do no wrong," must receive an inestimable im provement from the Reform Bill, inasmuch as the King's Ministers will henceforth be incapable of " doing any wrong" in which the people shall not be sharers with them. It is, then, of little con sequence, save to himself only, what may, from this time forward, be the private opinions of an English king, upon questions which concern the general welfare of the community. No war fur Hanoverian interests can, under a Reformed Parliament, be forced upon us, as in the days of George 11. No war on behalf of Divine right and Bourbonism, as in those of George 111. No millions for palaces, nor civil-list enormities, nor profligate pensions, as under the voluptuary and squandering reign of George IV. If a king, indeed, should, by long and consistent adherence to the paths of virtue and political wisdom, sway at will the affections of the people of this coun try, he might ask and obtain innumerable marks of indulgence from his subjects, and of deference to his desires, even at no small sacrifice of com fort to themselves. Questions upon the civil list, for example, will, in a reformed Parliament, be seized upon manfully—not blinked or sneake d away from—as fair and well-chosen opportuni ties for expressing the public sentiments with re gard to the conduct of the Sovereign, in those respects wherein no childish use can be made of the maxim that "the King can do no wrong." This brings us to the consideration of a point which, though in itself unworthy ofall notice, has derived a fictitious and accidental significancy from the prominence of trifling actors upon a mighty stage. Certain members of the Fitzclarence fa mily have been accused of the perversion of that influence which the kindness of their surviving parent allows them, to serve their own purposes. But can this charge be true ? Can their sudden elevation have so infatuated them as to make them fancy that they can have any hold or sta tion among the people of England which is not yielded to them in pure tenderness towards an illustrious person with whom they are connected no otherwise than as specks upon his memory ? Do they dream such nonsense as that by adopt ing the follies of the " high Tory aristocracy," they will ever be recognized among it members ? Do they not see that they can, under no cir cumstances, touch a shilling's worth of place or pension in this country at the public charge, except by virtue and through the medium of such a degree of popularity, to be enjoyed by the King and annexed to his person, as . might induce the Parliament and nation ge nerally to wave all strict admeasurement of rewards to merits, and to serve the child for the father's sake ? If the persons alluded to have . such lofty notions of their own pretensions or de serts, that they flatter themselves with the hope of " making way " through the humiliating ob stacles which beset them, without King Wil liam's aid or countenance, they may have some excuse for their diligence in urging him to dis regard that popularity which is the strength of monarchy, and to lean upon them, instead of being their natural, as he is their only, prop. In the mean time, if our readers want amusement, they may find it in a sort of explanation which has been given in Court circles for the King's non• appearance yesterday. It is said that lie could not give the Royal assent in person, be cause it is not usual for the Sovereign to assist at such a ceremony, except at the close of a session of Parliament, or when the Bill to be passed is one which relates directly and person ally to members of the Royal family ! As if this occasion had been one, in which precedent was of more avail than sound policy, o r a s if should no precedent exist, the case did not more than command that one should be established. However, let them make the best of it. We i n led,very anxious to pursue theare s n u o h t i , e u c n t. lss The three—eaTcctioo:ressin the last scene of opposi tion to the Reform Bill in the House of Lords on Monday, were, to be sure, selected with sin gular propriety. Lords Winchilsea Harrowbv ! ! Wharncliffe ! ! ! With the first, his short-lived, much-repented support of Lord Grey, his speech in favour of Reform at Maidstone, his bellowing declamations .against it in the House of Lords, we do not think it worth our while to trouble ourselves ; but as we have now heard all the explanation of their views and con duct which the two latter Lords are likely to give, we shall take the liberty, for the last time, of making an observation or two upon them. Lord Harrowby, with a simplicity which one might pardon in a child, but which is ridiculous in a grey-haired Statesman, talked again of Lord Lyndhurst's motion being what Lord Carnarvon called it, a mere alphabetical arrangement, and of no real importance. Can the Noble Lord hope to impose upon any one by such ab• solute twaddle ? He then accused Lord Grey of being guilty of " a.manceuvre and party trick," in tendering the honest advice to his Sovereign which was followed by his resignation. To Lord Grey's defence of conduct, which in the eyes of the universal people of England needed no de fence, we can add nothing ; but it is strange and monstrous that such a charge should be made by those who were themselves guilty of that very conduct which now, with blushing effrontery, they impute to Lord Grey. It is no secret, it was openly avowed by Lords Harrowby and Wharncliffe early in April, that they were anxious to see schedule A passed before Easter ; nay, so much importance did the former Noble man attach to this, that he disapproved of the postponement of the second reading of the Re form Bill, which was conceded to his colleague Lord Wharncliffe. How, then, could these Noble Lords view the postponement of the sche dules A and B. as immaterial? But if they were so duped as to be persuaded by their new allies, Lords Lyndhurst and Carnarvon, that disfran chisement ought not to be an object in the Bill for its own sake, but only a means towards the enfranchisement of large towns—persuaded of this, mark, by men whose sincerity in even this spe cies of Reform may be best known from the fact, that, two short years ago, they resisted the enfranchisement of a large town when the bo rough of Retford lay under sentence of disfran chisement—if they were so duped as this, did nothing, we ask, take place to enlighten them ? Did not Lord Grey, as he told the public, in his speech on Monday night, warn them—did he not tell Lord Wharncliffe in person, that he should consider the success of such a motion as Lord Lyndhurst's fatal to the Bill? Could the Noble Lords after that warning consider the question as trifling ? Did not Lord Grey again, in his speech in the House of Lords on the night of the motion itself, tell not only them, but the House, that he should so consider it ? Yet, after the first warning, these Noble Lordsjoined in plotting ; after the second they voted for Lord Lyndhurst's scheme. And these are the Lords who impute to others " manoeuvres and party tricks." But Lord Wharncliffe, who can not but feel the dirty part he has acted—who sees that he cannot but appear to the.world as hav ing played false to those who trusted him, who thought hire an honourable man, at least—tries to lighten his load of infamy, by telling us on Monday night that he would have communi cated the plot in which Lord H. and himself were such prominent actors to Lord Grey, if he alone had been in the secret. What then ? Why enter into the plot at all ? Why meet in council with the avowed enemies of all Reform, Lords Lyndhurst, Ellenborough, Carnarvon— the tools of the Commander-in-Chief himself, in his deep-laid scheme for defeating Reform (no —such was not his Grace's object,) for re-in stating himself in power ? The crime was the plot, not the secresy. The treachery was consummated by entering into the scheme ; and the keeping it secret could add nothing to its baseness. We may, perhaps, on some future occasion develope the whole intrigue, which we know ; for the present we leave to the common sense and honesty of all men to decide where the charge of " manoeuvre and party trick" rests. But men who have grown grey in the practice of these, are so little used to plain honesty and fair dealing, that they can fiiid no other name for them than that which is fitting for their own petty conduct alone.—Morning Chronicle. The Reform Bill was on Wednesday night re. turned to the House of Lords by Lord John Russell Lord Althorp, and between thirty and forty other members of the House of Commons, with the usual notification that their Lordships' amendments had been agreed to. It was received by the Lord Chancellor, with the usual forms and ceremonies, and now only waits the Royal Assent. In what manner this assent is to be given—whether in person by the King, or by means of a Royal Commission—remains to be seen. We have reason to believe that nothing has been actually settled upon the subject, — although advice has been tendered, and we trust we may therefore still entertain the hope that the King, true to his first pledges—true to the expectations of his people, and true to his fame as an honest hearted and straightforward En glishman—as the first King of his race who ever sympathized with the cause of his people, and trusted to the benefits which he had conferred on them, as the best guardians of his throne, and its prerogative,—will ratify, in per son, %hat he has done so much to promote. — Situated as our Soverei g n now is, there is no one, should he come down in person to give his assent to the Bill, who might not envy him ;and we will not for a moment suppose that he will be so blinded by the sinister counsel of malignant and envious individuals, as to suppose what might be the case, should he fail to do himself this great act of justice. Under his auspices was the Bill introduced—through his support, allowing for one false step, it has successfully weathered the storm in both Houses of Parlia ment—and by him in person ought the only re maining touch be given to it. The measure and. its benefits would be complete without this important ceremonial ; but the glory of the tri umph would be in some measure obscured, and the undoubted sincerity of the King be suspected of indifference or opposition. And now that we are on the very threshold of the temple which two years ago was only visible in the distance, and into which our enemies, even at this moment, would prevent us from entering if they could, it may not be altogether useless to look back on the means by which the great triumph has been achieved, and endea vour to gather from it a lesson for our future guidance, should the change of times ren der it necessary to have recourse to it. And what have been the means? We answer, unhesitat ingly, the united power of the people, and their determination, come well, come woe, to retain their rights, and put down forever the faction which had first robbed them of them, and then converted them into engines for their oppression. Had the people been disunited—had each man stickled for the adoption of his own particular views of Reform, and withheld the right hand of fellowship from his brother, because he would go farther, or would not go so far as himself, the cause of Reform would have been lost for the moment, or been only carried at the expe►,s.• of a civil war ; but the people were too enlight ened to play the game of their enemies—they wisely sank all minor differences of opinion, in order to insure what would be beneficial to all —they laboured night and day in the cause—they met—they resolved—they petitioned—nay, they sent up petition after petition, and remonstrance after remonstrance, until the King's closet, and the tables of both Houses of Par- liament, groaned under them ; they resisted all attempts to seduce them into a breach of the peace, although sorely tempted by the vexatious conduct of their enemies, and kept on the even tenour of their way in the certainty of final vic tory—and behold the triumph which they have achieved ! a triumph bloodless in its origin and course, and surpassing in moral grandeur every similar triumph that has ever been achieved by the people of this or of any other country. — Next to the people, Lord Grey and his Ma jesty's Ministers and the House of Commons must not be forgotten. To the wisdom of the first we are indebted for a Bill which united the suffrages of all classes—to the untired perseve rance of Lords Althorp and Russell does that measure owe its successful passage through the House of Commons—and, finally, to the bold and uncompromising spirit of the latter is the country mainly indebted for the restora tion of Lord Grey and his colleagues to office — the ousting of the Duke of Wellington and his crew from the Reform ship—and the final and speedy passage of the Bill through the Lords. Too much cannot be said in praise of any of them. Each did his duty nobly, and their no ble - and enviable reward is their country's love, esteem, and gratitude. Of the Political Unions, and the influence which they have exercised indi vidually and collectively, little need be said. They were emanations of the people's feelings, and representatives of their wishes—they are properly to be classed as part of the people, and not as bodies which arose into being and conti nued to live and flourish without them. True to their origin and vocation, they have nobly done their duty—they have been inStantin season and out of season—they have watched every movement of the enemy, and parried every blow with the greatest success that was aimed at their rights or their defenders—and in the tri umph which has been achieved do they find a noble and lasting reward of their labours. Finally, in speaking of the aid afforded by the Press to the great cause on which the minds of the people were set—we trust we need not observe, that we are not speaking of ourselves, but, of all who have laboured with us in the vineyard—of the nine-tenths of the Press of England which, echoing as it did at the beginning of the contest, the earnest wishes of the people of England, never faltered or relaxed in its exertions until they had been crowned with success. How earnestly it advocated the people's interests, through good and through evil reportin spite of calumny and menace,—the public must.ere now how have fully appreciated ; and in propor tion to their sense of its unwearied attachment to ,heir cause will, we trust, be their determination to protect it against all who would abridge its privileges. This is the only boon which we crave in return for the good which we have done —as for other gratification, we have it in the success of our labours and the deadly hostility and the rancorous animosity of those whom we have overthrown !—Morning Advertiser. It is evident, from what transpired in the House of Lords on Tuesday night, that Mi nisters have become ashamed of the Russo- Dutch loan job. It was by means of this job that Russia was enabled to march her vast armies, one after the other, to the conquest of Poland, whose independence we were bound by treaty to protect. English gold—the produce of the taxed industry of a people who pride themselves upon their love of freedom—went to assist Russian steel in extending the dominion of tyrannical rule and barbarism over liberty and civilization ! And it was not for voting against his conscience in sanctioning this job, which purchased for the British nation, at a costly price, the honour of being tributary to the imperious Calmuc of the North, that Sir Henry Parnell was dismissed from the situation of Secretary at War ! It is a hard case when a liberal Cabinet finds its course of policy im poses upon it the necessity of ejecting one of its members for being too careful of the public money, and carrying into office the incumbrance of a conscience. This Russian , Dutch loan job is, of course, to be primarily considered as one of the splendid achievements of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy,—though the whole Administration, with a solitary exception, certainly earned the honour of giving it their un qualified support. To pay vast sumsvf English money to Russia, after the event had happened which determined the treaty by which the obli gation to pay had been incurred, and that too without submitting the question to Parliament, was a bold step, and showed that Lord Palmers ton, as the head of our foreign policy, was more obsequious to the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh than to the British House of Commons. But the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown was in favour of that construction of the treaty, which cost the people so dear, no doubt, It has rarely happened that the opinion of a Crown Lawyer has been against the Minister of the Crown. We showed at the time of the dis cussion of this question, what grounds there were for relying, upon the validity of that nion. Russia got the money, flowever, at a crisis when it was of the utmost importance to her to have something like a subsidy from England. When his armies, aided by treachery, had done their sanguinary work in Poland, the insolent Czar expressed his grateful sense of our libera lity by contemptuously tearing in pieces the treaty of Vienna, and throwing it in the face of our gad_ of Government, who, after they had receiv e d th at treaties—thus the was fact." insult, declared that they had " no offici a l infor mation o ftheThuswas the En faithln honour of England— maintained. But Lord Palmerston has been decorated with the insignia of an order of chi valry. The Minister, whose policy and diplo matic appointments served to work ruin to Po land and shame to England, well deserves the blushing riband of the Bath. We observe that when the Lord Chancellor was asked whether the payments under this Russo-Dutch loan treaty had been suspended, he answered that they had not, properly speaking, been suspended, but had been superseded by a new arrangement, which had been agreed upon, but not yet rati fied, and which, when ratified, would be sub mitted to Parliament, with the view of obtain ing the necessary powers for carrying the arrange mentsinto effect, when the whole question could be considered. If we rightly understand the meaning of this declaration, it is that the pay ments under the treaty have been stopped, and that new payments are contemplated under a new arrangement, which has not yet been completed, and which Parliament is to be asked to sanction. When this arrangement does come to be laid be fore Parliament, we hope, as the Lord Chancel lor says, that the " whole question will be con sidered," and we do not think the whole question can be considered unless it be taken into account whether, instead of paying away more of the people's money to the Russian autocrat, he ought pot to refund the surplus sums which he has already received. The treaty was, indeed, an iniquitous one, which bound the people of Eng land to subsidise Russia to induce her to preserve the forced and unnatural union between Belgium and Holland. Iniquitous as it was, as long as it was legally in existence we would have it faith fully observed. But from the moment that Bel gium and Holland were severed, the treaty was at an end. The payments, by its clear and express stipulation, were to cease and determine. Can a reformed Parliament overlook this ? Morning Herald. REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. AMENDMENTS MADE BY TAB L ORD S. The following are the " amendments" made by the Lords to the Bill intituled, " An Act to amend the Re presentation of the People in England and Wales." Clause I.—Leave out (fifty-six.) After (annexed) insert (that is to say) Old Sarum, &c., enumerating the 56 boroughs. Leave out (thirty.) After (annexed) insert (that is to say) Petersfield, &c., enumerating the boroughs that are to send one Member. After (annexed) insert (that is to say) Manchester, Birmingham, &c., enumerating the new boroughs. After (annexed) insert (that is to say) Asbton-under- Lyne, Bury, Chatham, &c. [Then the boroughs are inserted in the Bill as well as the schedules.] [Then follow an immense• number of verbal amend. merits ] The following are some of the amendments:— Leave out, p. 6, I. 36, from (except) to (unless), in line 17, and insert (such person shall be in the actual and bona fide occupation of such lands or tenements, or except the same shall have come to such person by marriage, marriage settlement, devise or promotion to any benefice, or to any office, or except.) Leave out, p. 18. I. 11, from (lists) to (provided), in line 33, and insert (as to any of the particulars by this Act required to be inserted in such lists, and where the Christian name of any person, or his place of abode, or the nature of his qualification, or the local or other de. scription of his property, or the name of the tenant in the occupation thereof, as the same respectively are re quired to be inserted in any such list, shall be wholly omitted therefrom, such Barrister shall expunge the name of every such person from such list, unless the matter or matters so omitted be supplied to the satisfaction of such Barrister before he shall have completed the provision of such list, in which case he shall then and there in sert the same in such list.) Aft-r (Parliament) insert (nor any person holding any office or place of profit under the Crown.) New clause (46.)—Provided also, and be it enacted, that if it shall happen that any person who shall have given to the overseers of any parish or township due notice of his claim to have his name inserted in the list of voters in the election of a knight or knights of the shire, shall have been omitted by such overseers from such list, it shall be lawful for the Barrister, upon the revision of such list, to insert therein the name of the per• son so omitted, in ca - e it shall be proved to the satisfac tion of such Barrister that such person gave due notice of such his claim to the arid overseers, and that he was en- titled, on the last day of July then next preceding, to be inserted in the list of voters in the election of a knight or knights of the shire for the county, or for the riding, parts or division of the county, wherein the parish or township of such overseers may be situate, in re spect of any lands or tenements within such parish or township. Second new clause (80).—And whereas in may hap pen that the Act or Acts fur settling the boundaries of cities, boroughs, and other places, and the divisions of counties, as hereinbefore mentioned, may not be passed within such time as will allow the several provisions of this Act relative to the lists of voters within such respective boundaries and divisions, and the various notices and proceedings preparatory to and connected with such lists, to be carried into effect within the several pe riods in the present year hereinbefore specified and limited in that behalf; and it is therefore expedient in such event as aforesaid to appoint other periods for the purposes afore said ; he it therefore enacted, that if the Act or Acts for settling the boundaries and divisions hereinbefure men tioned shall not be passed before the 20th day of June in the present year, then and in such case the notice herein before repaired to be given on the said 20th day of June shall not be given on that day, and the lists of voters and the notices and other proceedings preparatory to and con nected with such lists, shall not be made out, given or had upon or within the several days or tittles in the present year: hereinbefore specified in that behalf; but if the Act or Acts for settling the boundaries of cities, boroughs, and other places, and the division of counties as hereinbefore mentioned, shall be passed in the present year subsequently to the 20th day of June, then and in such case his Majesty shall, by an order made with the advice of his Most Hon- Privy Council, appoint in lieu of the day for the present year hereinbefore specified in that behalf, a certain other day before or upon which the respective lists of voters shall be made out, and shall also appoint, in lieu of the several days and times for the present year hereinbefore specified or limited in that behalf, certain other days and times upon or within which all notices, claims, objections, and other matters whatsoever, by this Act required to be given, delivered, transmitted, done, or performed in rela tion to such lists, either before or after the making out of such lists, shall be respectively given, delivered, trans mitted, done, and performed, and his Majesty shall also, by such order, appoint, in lieu of the period for the present year hereinbefore limited in that behalf, a certain other pe riod for the revision of the respective lists of voters by the Barristers ; and shall also appoint, within what time, in lieu of the time for the present year hereinbefore limited in that behalf, such respective lists shall be copied out into books, and, where necessary, delivered to the Sheriff or Under Sheriff, and from what day, in lieu of the day for the present year hereinbefore specified in that behalf, such respective books shall begin to be in force B . the registers of voters ; and his Majesty may also, by such an order in Council, appoint any days and time* for doing the several other matters required or outla' rized by this Act, in lieu of the several days and . , times for the present year hereinbefore specified ; an d all days and times so appointed by his Majesty a' aforesaid, shall be deemed to be of the same force and e ffect as if they had in every instance been mentioned in this Act, in lieu of the days and times for the present year hereinbefore specified in that behalf; provided always , that nothing herein contained shall authorize his Majesty to appoint any days or times in lieu of the days and times me°' tioned in this Act, except for the purpose of carrying into effect the first registration of voters under this Act ; provided also, that no person shall be entitled to be included in web first registration of voters, unless he would have been en," titled, on the last day of July in the present year, to have 1 0 name inserted in some list of voters, if such list had beep made out on the said last day of July. We are happy to observe that the elegant and accomplished pen whose vers de Societe are quite LT; equalled in the present day, has just resumed its deligbtl il I unctions, after a too long interregnum, occasioned by ti,", more absorbing political claims upon the time and thoug h ' of its distinguished mover. The hand which pens 11 1 " Scraps from Lady Julia's Album," which have a ppeare in the two last numbers of the " Court Journal," arid ji regular series of which is announced, cannot be mistake n ' The titles of the three poems are " The Rising You l l , Man," " The Last Quadrille," and "The Maiden Speeeb' t Accounts from the Western Isles state th o intelligence has been received from Madeira that 0 0 troops of the i s l an d h a d d eserte d t h e stan d ar d o f 9° MIGUEL, and had arr i ve d at t h e sma ll i s l an d o f por",,, Santo, to join Don PEDRO. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY MURDO YOUNG, ' 111 6 SUN OFFICE, 112, STRAND, LONDON• BIRTHS. On the 2d inst. at Elwick Hall, in the county of Durham' tlie lady of the Rev. James Allan Park, of a son. 0 On the 21st of March, at Alexandria, Egypt, the law' William Nathaniel Peach, Esq., of a son. MARRIED. CO' On the sth inst. at West Bilney, the Rev. Richardson ga ry eldest son of Roger Cox, Esq., of Spondon, Derbyshire, to I : . ; ie st Anne, eldest daughter of the Rev. Robert Hankinson, of Bi Onthelne Norfolk. 4,1e 6v 7th inst. at St. George's, Hanover-square, John. ' t, son of John Wells, Esq., of Bichley, in the county of llsori• Julia, youngest daughter of the late T. V. Cooke, Esq., ° ningAiill, Berks. DIED. cc On the 4th inst. at Barnes-green, in the 52d year of her a' Elizabeth, widow of the late Admiral Stanton. onof On the 2d inst. at Bath, William Lawrence, eldes t William Laforest, Esq., of Bedford-row, London.