The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-06 00:00:00

•e;f
hject is to revent t e resignation of a gang -n
of place-
.
men, who would as soon set fire _to the four corners of
the earth as relinquish, of their own accord, a single
quarter's draught upon the Treasury. There is no-
thing so heartless as the sneer of a tyrailt. Ths,re is
no capricious tyrant, absolute over the fate and fortunes
of his vassals, who does not delinht in tormenting
them. Nor can one imagine a mean-minded uPeiart
,like M'Hale more intensely tickled • by :any one ,
nuity of malice than he must be by the preseetatnni
-of a prayer to his own bondsmen, existing at hie nod,
, to oblige him by forbearing to burst those. fetters
which he has made indissoluble. Were We to describe
gravely such a proceeding, we should sly that it was
a Popish requisition to prolong the reign of Popery.
As for the wretched Ministers, they are but • tools ;
and they are no less conscious of that humiliating
circumstance than are the party who employ them.
They are pegs on which to hang a petition. To grant
or reject the prayer of one against or in furtherance of
such a daring step as a resignation, they must -refer
back for orders to 'the " petitioners" themselees.
England has "no Government whatever." We shall
ring the astounding fact in the ears of the Whcle em-
pire, till it returns upon us in twenty millions of echoes.
The men who drive through Downing-street twiee, a-
day, who are stuck up on the Treasury bench like head-
shaking mandarins of damaged crockery, and tie un bun-
dles of useless paper with superfluous rolls of tare—they
may call themselves Ministers if they will, but they are,
in truth, no more than the gnats of office. They snake
singing noises in one's ears, and where they alight ( which
is ever on one's purse) they sting ; but Ministers they
are not. In yesterday's leading article we give the
rationale of the character, the condition- and the -eu •
ties of these grasping menials. We hit their sore.
They know that the raw vet on their carcass is their
utter nonentity as a Government for England, and
they tremble when they hear that withering truth.
Their journals, therefore, are in ecstasies of agitation
at the blazoning before the public of that secret which
they hoped to carry with them to their Ministers!
death-bed. They first misrepresent and then revile
us. They accuse the Times of having called on the
O'Connell Cabinct simply "to resign." That is un-
true. We make their resignation but one of two
or three alternatives—either (we desired them) carry
those measures which you declare to be indispensable
by the same means as are resorted to by other
Ministers—namely, by those which the Constitution
offers, the votes of both Houses cf Parliament ; or
if you cannot do 'that (and your excuse is that you
cannot,) and if you complain that you cannot make
the Constitution your instrument—why, then make
it your victim. You condemn and reprobate those
constitutional powers which you cannot pervert to your
own purposes. Then, if you speak your real senti-
ments, you will remodel or subjugate those powers, or
you are not honest men. Why do you not insist, in
your own House of Parliament, on an organic change
of that which opposes your " indispensable" referms ?
You dare not. What, when the Radicals are with
you ? Still you dare not. Why ? Is it n b airie
the people of England are against you and your organic
changes ? You, know in your hearts that it is. But
the majority in the House of Commons itself, your
own Reformed House of Commons, is no more than
" a measuring cast majority." Then, again and again,
when you boast that if the majority within doers
be small and unimposing, the out-of-door majority
is vast and overwhelming, we demand of you, why
do you not appeal to that super-Parliamentary
people ? Once more—you " dare not." The King
refuses to recompose the House of Commons, as the
people refuse to remodel the House of Lords ; and
it is certain that if Lord Melbourne asks for a
dissolution and receives a negative, he must, in spite
of himse,if, under that untoward circumstance, resign.
There's the ru". " There's the respect that makes
nonentity of so long life." Let the nation tioeo quietly
ponder this argument, and familiarize themselves with
it. Here are a pack of menials in office fit subjects
for the servants' ball, who have forced themselves into
the saloon, and into their noble master's presence.
They proclaim that there are certain grievances which
must be redressed, as the condition of their remaining
in the service, and they brinn them folavard us sac-
ceesion ; first they try one, which they fail in getting
•remedied ; they clamour and bAlow, an:l foam at the
mouth, and vilify those who stand in the way of their
"reforming" project, and threaten to demolish them,
but in vain. There stand the obnoxious parties,
laughing to scorn the high-life-below-stair grievance-,
mongers, and setting their fury at defiance. Still, the
grievance not being redrassed, nor the parties resisting the
cure of it punished—still, we say, the "Reformers" take
their wages, cat their pudding, and with it swallow the
point of honour about which they sputtered-4e con-
dition, the fulfilment of which, they pledged them-
selves, was the exclusive object for which they had
engaged to serve. Another grievance is brought for-
ward, and yet another " vital', grievance, of each of
which the redress was made the subject of a solemn
pledge; but they have one and all the same treatment
—they remain unmitigated, 'and the obstructors of
such redress prosperous and undisturbed. With respect
to them,. likewise, the condition of service is forgotten
by the obstreperous and sordid slaves. All promises
are flung asile,—all pledges are abandoned,—all is
abandoned save the beef, beer, and wages. What,
then, is it to which such, men do attach importance ?
Not to the Irish Tithe Bill ; they laugh at the
notion that they can ever carry it. Not to the
Corporation Bill—the Lords have announced in
what manner they will handle it. Not to the
Irish Poor Bill—the O'Connell Cabinet have
framed it so as to insure either its rejection or a cruel
disappointment to themselves. Not to the English
Church-rate Bill—they have appointed a Committee
expressly to cut its throat. That to which they do
attach importance—to which alone they attach hnpor-
tauce—ia.their office ; to that alone they have clung
with desperate affection, all else they have sacrificed
—one and all their " vital" measures ; they have in
effect abandoned office—office only survives them all.
The Ministers, therefore, by keeping place keep Eng-
land" without a Government." Their journals tell us
it is a " Legislature" we want, not a Government.
To this we reply, there is a Legislature, a reformed
'one ; by the acheowledgment of Ministers themselves
it represents the people " pretty fairly ;" but it is
clogged and paralyzed because " no •Government"
exists with which an effective and enlightened Legis-
lature would not scorn to co-operate.— Times.
The motion to be made this evening' in the House
of Lords by the Lot& Chief Justice, will involve one
of those high-constitutional questions upon which the
people and the House of Commons have long been at
issue. Lord Denman is known to be a sound consti-
tutional lawyer ; indeed, the whole of his public life
has been rnerked by the strongest attachment to tile in-
terests of the people. In the present case, in which
the rights of ind.siduals inns be sacrificed to the privi-
leges of Parliament, the House of Commons will, no
doubt, be invited to believe that those privileges, with-
out which it cannot exist, may safely be allowed to rest
nitogether 'on the decision of the Judges of the Coons
of Common Law in Westminsterohall. Dom the
respect which is clue to 'the legal and constitutional
knowledge of those distinguished persons, there can be
linle doubt that their opinions wilt be favourable to the
privileges of the House of Commons ; yet it cannot
be concealed that men of great eminence in the profes-
sion of the law have declared an adverse opinion. The
precedents are these :—Mr. Williams Wynn, speaking
in June, 1810, upon the situation in which the House
of Commons was placed by the actions commenced
against the Speaker and the Sergeant by Sir Francis
Burdett, concluded by moving the following resolutions:
" 1. That whoever shall presume to commence or pro-
secute any trztion or indictment, or prosecution against any
person for acts done in obedience to the orders of the
Ilouse, such p,ison and persons, and all Attorneys, Soli-
citors, Counciilors, and Sergeants at Las', soliciting, prose-
c:..ting, or pleading in any such case, are guilty of a high
breach of the privilege of t',e Home.
" That it appeArs to this House that the actions com-
mence t Francis Burdett, Bart., against the Iti.g,ht
Ilan. C. Abbott,- Speaker of this Hou::,e, and agamst
Francis John CD:man, E Sergeant at Arms attending,
this House, are for acts done in obedience to the orders of
this House.
epnreloa.
(t,"to3l.l:Torlrioatwtlaiettperro,dpetrhoitycHer„uosfetl:,eitChouoritroeferidn!'as B
nci
ccediugs in the said actions."
Perc4val moved the previous question on the