The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-10 00:00:00

188 12 0 396 9 2

" So that such is the expense of this process under the
present system, that in the instances stated, it cost the estate
and they thy the parties 3961. 94. in order to gain the sum
rf 1881. 12d. Bd. ; the untire costs of the mere taxation
amouLt to about 7001. In the cause of Hughes against
\Vyme, they are nearly to the same amount. There arc,
no doubt, many other causes which would afford en
equally instructive lesson."

The more we consider the present state of parties
in this country, the more we are convinced that the
people must, and they only can, help themselves.
Lord BROUGIIA M, in one of his recent publica-
cations, praises Mr. HORNE TOOK E for having
given, in his long imprisonment and trial, decided
proofs of patriotism. Mr. MACA ULAY too, at
Edinburgh, made the public aware of the great ad-
vantage to the people of having the Government
administered by Whig hands. So far as Ireland
is concerned, there can be no doubt that this is a
pre-eminent advantage. At the same time, before
the accession of the Whigs to office, there was a
manifest improvement in the character of the
Government. For several years, none of the
upper classes have been called on to exhibit those
proofs of patriotism which Lord BROUGHADJ
so much admires in HortNE TOOKE. The ultimate
result too, of such patriotism as displayed in Sir
FRANCIS BURDETT, the last specimen of one of
these true patriots, is not such as to make us set
much value on it. His patrotism would probably
have found an ample reward in a Peerage, and not
receiving that he has become a patriot Tory.
THISTLEWOOD, indeed, and some others, have
given proofs of their patriotism, we believe, since Sir •
FRANCIS, but they were not of a nature to jus-
tify or reward imitation. We mac infer, therefore, we
think, from this gradual disappearance of proofs of
patriotism, that the Executive Government was in a
gradual course of amelioration before the accession
of the Whigs to office. Praising very much
their_ general forbearance • from prosecutions
of the press, and from instituting trials for
sedition, we cannot at the same time deny
that such things were of not frequent occurrence in
the years immediately prior to their accession to of-
fice. If, as we suppose, the Executive Government
was in a gradual course of amelioration just as
society is in a gradual course of civilization—the
Whigs as compared to the Tories have the advan-
tage of coming at a later period, and so may appear to
advantage, without possessing much greater merit.
Just as the Protestant Church in all comparisons
with the Church of Rome derives a great and un-
fair advantage from comparing a Church which
came into existence in the sixteenth cen-
tury, with a Church that flourished in
preceding and less civilized ages. Our de-
duction from these rather desultory remarks is
that the Executive Government, which, under the
Whigs has not forced men to give HORNE
TOOK A'S proofs of patriotism, would not, under
the Tories, supply many such examples. Our
further deduction is, that so far as our personal
liberties and property are concerned, we have no-
thing to apprehend from the Executive Govern-
ment, which has ceased in the course of thinfirs to
be very oppressive, and that what the country re-
quires is rather improvement in legislation than in
the Executive Government.

But it so happens that in the present balanced
state of parties, each being jealous of the othergaining
a lasting hold of popularity and power by a judicious
legislation, nothing whatever can be obtained from
Parliament. So far does this excessive jealousy carry
our rival legislators, and has carried them for some
time, that, according_ to Mr. SPENCE, aye, and ac-
cording to Lords BROUGHAM and LYNDHURST,
the Legislation by which each of them proposed to
improve the Court of Chancery, was defeated by
his rival. Nothing therefore of any importance, or
of much utility, can possibly be obtained from the
Legislature, and consequently it will belong to the
press and to the people to ascertain which mea-
sures would most promote the public happiness, to
make them the themes of discussion and concen-
trate on them public opinion, so as hereafter to in-
fluence the conduct of the Legislature. Unless we
adopt that measure, legislative improvement will be
hereafter as impossible as it is at present. This Ses-
sion, stricken with atrophy, must soon come to an end;
whether the Whigs or the Tories be in office there
can be no hope from it; and time will be
given the people to consider what it is most de-
sirable to require of the Legislature, and concentrate
their energies in obtaining it. What the Whigs
and the Radicals may resolve on we will not at
present attempt to say, but the Tories, if they con-
tinue consistent in office, must, above and before
all things, increase the revenues and the power of
the priesthood. The Church must be.extended in
Scotland, and in England, and must be replaced in
all its pristine power of exacting tithes in Ireland.
The Tories affirm—that they really believe it we
will not assert—that the morality, and con-
sequently the happiness, the peace, and wel-
fare of the community, depend on the supremacy
of the Anglican priesthood, and the maintenance of
their power over the education, and over the minds
of the community. To accomplish that then must
be their great object; all the Radicals and Whiffs are
convinced that the domination of the Anglican
Church is one of the most serious evils which
Legislature has to remedy. They can, therefore,
but consider the accession of the Tories to office,
which would throw all the weight of the Executive
Government into the scale of the pliesthocd, as a
curse to the community.

There is some truth, and also some misappre
hension, in the letter of a Correspondent from Ban-
bury on the 101. county qualification. If " the
Liberals will not stir an inch," and the Tories are
allowed to have the registration all in their own
way, almost every proposed correction of the Re-
form Bill would be as objectionable as he
considers the object of Sir HESKETH
WOOD'S motion. We cannot, however, think
so meanly of the men who carried the Re-
form Bill, nor can we believe that the Libe-
rals of Banbury would desert their Represen-
tative, who votes for Household Suffrage,
Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments, merely be-
cause he differed from them on one point,
and conscientiously, though in our opinion erro-
neously, voted against the motion. We say erro-
neously, because if Sir ROBERT PEEL and his
party had entertained our Correspondent's opinion,
they ought to have supported Sir HESKETH FLEET-
WOOD. They knew better. They knew that if
such a motion had been carried, a great number
of 101. householders would have voted against
them, and that the cry for the Ballot excited by the
501. clause would have been increased to an extent
which would have obliged even the House of Lords
to yield to it.

The Hollando-Belgic question is at last happily
and finally settled. For once copious ink shedding
has, notwithstanding the ridicule of the Tories,
preserved the peace
,of Europe. Oa Saturday
afternoon a Confefence of the Representatives
of the five Great Powers was held at- the
Foreign Office in Downing-street, when the ra-
tifications of the Treaty of Peace between Hol-
lahnadn,ed.
and ..
Belgium, were formally and solemnly ex
c
We frank]) acl-nowled,re that this result,
of which we more than once' despaired, is creditable
to the firmness and energy of Lord PALMERSTON ;

and we shall ever think the better of him for this
signal proof of his abilities as a Minister and a
ztatcsman.

We this day present to our readers another
powerful article from the Examiner on the subject
of " the Lunatic Committee of Visiting Justices"
of the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum at Han-
well, to which we direct particular attention.
Proverbially the Magistrates of Middlesex have
been, and are, a mere bye-word—the laughing-steak
of the community. We do not believe these is to
be found in the whole of the English counties any
parallel to them. But bad as the whole body of
Middlesex Justices is, inefficient in every thing
except shameful and extravagant expenditure of the
county money, " the Lunatic Committee" of that
body, by then- own statements, appear to out-Herod
Herod. We hope for the honour of the Magis-
trates of other counties, that the case made out by
the Middlesex Lunatic Committee against them-
selves, by their own Reports and the audits of their
own accounts, is not to be predicated of any other
County Lunatic Asylum in England.
We consider the Government imperatively called
upon to interfere and afford some protection to the
Rate-payers. The case made out by the Lunatic
Committee, is so strongly condemnatory of their own
proceedings—the proofs of their inefficiency to con-
duct an expenditure of public money are so glaring,
that without imputing anything like criminality, we
are strongly convinced, that the sooner " the Lu-
natic Committee" are relieved from the trouble of
continually putting their hands into the pockets of
the County Rate-payers, the bstter will it be for the
community.
From the Report of the proceedings at the
Marylebone Vestry, on Saturday, it will be seen
that that influential body came to an unanimous
vote, including the Tory Lord KENYON'S vote, as
well as the votes of several county Magistrates,
calling upon the Government to institute an in-
quiry into the expenditure of the County of Middle-
sex. This is as it should be; it is not a party ques-
tion, but a great practical grievance,. in which the
whole County Rate-payers, and we ourselves in
common with them, are intemted. We hope the
Government will respond to the call, by prompt
accquiescence.

The result of the Devonshire meeting is exactly
what we anticipated. There was a considerable
majority in favour of addressing the Queen—such
a majority, indeed, as no honest and impartial eye
could by any possibility mistake ; but, as. we stated
last week, the High Sheriff is a Tory, and High
Sheriffs of that description do not feel themselves
called upon to decide any cause in which there is
Toryism on one side and only justice on thelothet
in favour of the latter. This gentleman, therefore,
from a natural defect in his organs of vision,
could not see that which was as clear as the
sun at noonday to every body but himself and his
Tory sub, namely, that two-thirds of the Castle-
yard, where the meeting was held, mere filled with
Liberals, and the remaining third with the support-
ers of " disloyal insolence."
Upon the conduct of these functionaries, or the
quality of mind which could stoop to so dishonour-
able a meanness as it involves, jt is useless to wasto
words. To make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
is a feat that we believe has hitherto baffled the skill
of our most ingenious artisans, and it is just as hope-
less a task to look for real honour and sterlinginteg,rity
among the hacks of a degraded faction. 'When a
man is once thoroughly imbued with Tory princi-
ples—supposing him to have been a gentleman be-
fore, which we cannot assert to have been the case
in the instance before us—good bye to all gentle-
manly feeling, and all uprightness in political
matters. The mind loses its perception of right
and wrong—the moral sense becomes deadened—
there is no restraint from within—and the only
consideration with the unhappy victims of this ac-
cursed system, is how far they can go without
coming under the penalties of the law.
The Tories of Devonshire however have no
cause for triumph. Quite the contrary. They
know that they were defeated, and so do the public.
The partiality of an official cannot conceal the
mortifying fact that the following Address was
approved by a large majority of a County
Meeting :---

" TO TILE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

" We, your Majesty's faitlafut subjects, inhabitants of the
county of Devon, in county assembled, beg to approach
your Majesty with aeotitnente of the most devoted ,ietyalty
and attachment.

6' We desire to express our admiration of the wisdom
which enabled your Majesty to detect, and the firmness
with which your Majesty has resisted the attempt lately
made to encroach on the constitutional privileges and pre.
rogatives of the Crown, in demanding the dismissal, and
claiming the appointment of the Ladies of your Majesty's
Household.

" We feel assured that the same spirit and determina-
tion which have been so nobly displayed by your Majesty
in maintaining the prerogatives of the Crown will be
evinced by you on all occasions in supporting the rights
and liberties of the people.—(Cheers.)
" We hail with wain: Hod satisfaction the expressions
of your Majesty's decided attachment to the principles of
a Liberal Government, and we trust that our Majesty will
ever call to your councils honest and enlightenedstates-
men, who, whilst they steadily uphold the prerogatives of
the Crown, will carry cut such measures of Reform as arc
indispensably required in all our institutions, ecclesiastical
as well as civil. In order to confirm and extend the bless-
ings of our free Constitution, and to advance the welfare
and prosperity of the mighty empire which Divine Provi-
dence has committed to your care."
The principal opponent of the Address was the
Earl of DEVON. This pedantic, self-conceited
personage, whose tongue seems out of all propor-
don to his brains, pretended to find fault with the
Liberal Members representing boroughs within the
county, for not being at the meeting. We do not
mean to defend the absence of all who were not
there, but does it become this noble chatterer to throw
the first stone at any one who is absent from his duty,
when he belongs to a body of legislators, who, as he
was told by Mr. DIVETT, may, while they reside
in Constantinople, vote away our lives and liberties
in the British Parliament ?

From the following extracts from the Dutch and
German papers, received last night, it would appear
that both the Sardinian and Russian Governments
were perfectly well aware of the prospective occur-
rence of the late enzeute in France several weeks
before it took place. The present is not the best
time for dwelling at any length upon this circum-
stance. A number of persons are in the course
of being tried by the French Chamber of Peers
for a crime of which, should they be found guilty,
thcy will suffer an ignominiouS death, and therefore
humanity dictates an abstinence, on the part of Fo-
reign Journalists, from any remark calculated either
to excite a prejudice against them, or to defeat the
proper ends of public justice. We may, however,
take leave to ask what steps did the Governments of
Russia and Sardinia take to make the King of the
FRENCH aware of the danger which threatened kis
person ? Did one or the other send a courier to Paris
to inform the CITIZEN KING that his life was in
peril ? And if they did, how did it happen that
the French Government did not prevent the shedding
of innocent blood in the streets of Paris ;by the
adoption of suitable precautionary measures ?
But it IA ill be time enough to enter into
the merits of this very complicated ques-
tion when the Court of Peers has decided
respecting the guilt or innocence of the prisoners
now at its bar. In the mean time it is strange
if such statements as the following do not make an
extraordinary sensation in France. The coinci-
dence between the accounts from Cracow and
Turin are most striking :

Tunm, MAY 29. —The riot in Paris, which took the
French Authorities by surprise, and found them quite un-
prepared, effused no such surprise here. We knew here
some weeks ago, what would happen in France. The Sar-
dinian Government had therefore taken its measures, while
at Paris they were quietly looking on, while a handful of
of agitators ventured to show themselves in the Lee of a
very powerful armed force. It would be really a Let de-
serving of punishment if the French Authorities knew
nothing of what was passing under their eyes. While a
foreign Government at the distance of 100 leagues was
accurately informed of the approaching proceeding of
the Parisian Revolutionists. A short time before
the .Allgenzeine Zeitung had published information
(sent from this city) that the Sardinian Govern-
ment had ordered increased vigilance to he ob-
served in the frontier, because it apprehended fresh troubles
in France, and we know of a plot against the life
of Louis .Phillippe. The first part of this notice has
proved true, and as for the second we know that the hatred
of the adversaries of Louis Philippe is implacable. We
know here the views of the United Republican and Bona-
parte parties, and shall not be surprised at an attempt on
the King's life, because we aro informed of what that in-
corrigible party contemplates notwithstanding its late
failure.

CRACOW, MAY 22.—The accounts from Paris, relative
to the late disturbance have excited the more sensation here,
as reports of a revolution in the French capital is to take
place in the course of this month, have been in circulation
here for several weeks.

These reports were spread in a quiet manner and were