The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-16 00:00:00

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF TFIIS DAY.
( From the Morning Chronicle.)
A section of the Tories seem to think they have hold
of so good a thing in the case of the late Lady Flora
Hastings, that they never know when to have done
with it. The tide of ribaldry and virulence had abated
a little before the recent publication of Sir James
Clark's statement, but now it flows on again as strong
as ever. Not even the Sovereign herself is exempted
from the slanderous and unmanly vituperations that
ceaselessly assail the inmates of her palace. The public
is tired of the topic ; and so the plan seems to be, to
leave some falsehoods pe'menently fixed in people's
minds by dint of vigorous hammering and impu-
dent repetet.on. It is the custom of Toryisii to
practise on mineable understandings. The din, as
well as the blow, serves its purpose. In the
present instance, the fraudulent and malignant
attempt can only succeed so long as the continual
clatter coufounds all recollection of the few, simple, and
incoutesteble facts that constitute the entire merits of
the case. Suppose the late affair had happened in a
private family ; that Lady Flora Hastings had only
been Miss Rachel Jenkins, or any other Miss "un-
known to film,: ;" and that no party purpose could have
le en ans.-. red by the oratorical description of her mar-
tyrdom anti canon'z ttUau, or by the ferocious immolation
of any person else : how, then, would the case have
wood.? At a large famiiy dinner-table, a young lady,
just returned from the country, appears with in altered
form ; so altered, that it cannot fail to attract the eye,
or to suggest to the mind that which, in nine hundred
and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, is the cause of
such alteration. Is there a family in England where such
a circumstance would not have been noticed by the in-
mates, one to another, before any of them undertook the
delicate task of broaching the question to the object of
their observation ? According to the morality of some
of our Contemporaries, this natural end almost unavoid-
able communication wouid have been a crime, a `e foul
conspiracy." The first who spoke what all thought,and
could not help thinking, would deserve to be branded as
the originator of the conspiracy, to be denounced as the
primary slanderer, and to be hunted out, as by blood-
heunde, in order when found to be pilloried for public
exeeratiou. A fanaticism of this sort may be excused
in a relative whose feelings are too steong for the per-
ception of reason and justice ; in a looker on its sincerity
will not readily be credited. Suppose matters had taken
a different turn, and Lady Flora's peculiar appearance
had been the subject of tio comment by the ladies of the
Court ; it would not have escaped comment elsewhere.
Tory pamphleteers tell us of the notice it attracted from
menials. The caterers of fashionable scandal would
not have missed their game. Tory morality would
then have taken the other side of the question. It
would have been fiercely demanded whether it was
seemly for the maiden Queen of Eigland to consort
with unmarried ladies whose appearance was at least so
equivocal! We question whether even the Arito-
cracy of Lady Flora would have saved her fair fanie,
if through it the poisoned shaft could have inflicted a
wound that might tell for a party purpose. The spirit
of faction had the advantage of which a kindred spirit
boasted. " Either way makes my game." The Queen
was to have the rebound of the pelting, until she was
beaten into a different selection of associates, and whe-
ther the rebound should come from Lady Portman or
Lady Flora, would make little difference. Those who
have been exposed to such unmeasured abuse for taking the
careful side, would hardly have escaped had they been in-
different or quiescent. There has been such vigorous re-
iteration Of " infamous calumny," " atrocious slander,"
conspiracy against fame and honour," and the like,
that one is apt to forget what the imputation really was,
after the changed form of Lady Flora had been ob-
served. The suspicion of a private marriage is no such
enormous crime as to merit being knocked about by all
these bard words. Higher families than that of the
noble house of Hastings have been raised by private
marriages. It was only to this point that the allegation
went. The imputation stretched not an atom further.
The appearances were obvious ; but the construction
put upon them was neither scandalous nor uncharitable.
In ordinary circumstances, it would have been deemed
a generous one. Those who may have the misfortune
to suffer under similar symptoms to those of Lady Flora,
nay in general be very thankful to be judged so forbear-
ingly-. The honour of her character, and the correctness
of her conduct, were assumed ; it was only required that
the marriage should be avowed, or the apparent indica-
tions of it explained. Could, or would, less than this
have been required in any private family? Or if it
had would that family have sustained its station, and
escape the censures of the neighbourhood ? Subsequent
facts have proved that the inference, however unavoid-
able it might appear, was a fallacious one. From the
moment of that discovery there has been but one voice
and one feeling of justice, sympathy, and consolation
towards the innocent sufferer while she was conscious ;
and since she ceased to be so, towards all who really
loved and mourned her. The false semblance which
occasioned her suffering, was to herself a misfortune ;
lout in no one else was it a crime. 'There is no culprit
to detect ; no criminal to punish ; no premeditated in-
jury to avenge. Suppose the circumstance were known,
which some have displayed a perfctly ferocious
eagerness to ascertain ; suppose it were discovered
whose lips first told to another the common and inevit-
able thought suggested by the appearances—what
then ? So far from malice, guilt, or slender, being
thereby detected, we should only know who was the
first to say that which any man, woman, or child,
throughout the world, might have said in perfect blame-
lessness. In such a case of simultaneous observation,
the being first to speak is mere accident. It may be ut-
terly impossible afterwards to say who was first. Were
it possible, it would become most dishonourable after
the manifestation that has been made of unreasonable,
unscrupulous, and insatiable vitlictivenees. All mis-
takes are to be regretted, deeply rogrettee.,.whcri they
occesion suffering ; but few mistakes are less easily
avoided than that which was made in this instance. For
the retaliatory imputations of " conspiracy," "slander,"
" barbarity," and a thousand other crimes, and for
the manner and purposes of their repetition,
there is no excuse. While affecting to cham-
pion injured innocence. they pander to in-
delicacy. While yeelegerising the dead, they ca-
lumniate tile living. While ceiling. for .retributory
justice, they aim at inflicting irreparable wrong. While
professing a chivalric determination for redress, they
aim at objects and use weap ma which bespeak the re-
creant, the coward, and the assassin. And all this, to
damage one political party, and force another upon a
reluctant Sovereign ! When Burke lemented that the
age of chivalry was gone, and IL:e of calculators
anti econemists had succocaled, -he did not forsec the
event of a Tory chivalry, which he would have loathed
far more than economy and calculation ; a chivalry,
reversing the laws and oath of the ancient insti-
tute, waging sevage and venomous warfare upon
women (if their lords be Whigs) ; its devotion, the daily
repetition of a scandalous litany of lies and curses ; and
i!s loyalty blown to the winds bet ause th hopes of fac-
•iun are li,ffled by the simplicity, tru'b, and firmness
that make loyalty a moral principle.
(From the Times.)
The Observer, which placards itself as being under.
the peculiar patronage of " the Queen and Royal.
Family," contained on Sunday last the fallowing ar,icle,
which has already been denounced in this paper as a
false oat., respecting Sir lt,,hert Peel The result
of this feeling on the part of these rational Protestant
Tories has been, teat several of them demand to know
in plain terms whether the advent of Toryism was in
reaity to be the signal for civil war in Ireland ? The
answer given on behalf of Sir Robert Peel was to this
effect—that it was required for the sustenance of the
Tory party to keep up and enforce the No-Popery feel:
ng in England, but that there was no design of pushing
the exterminating rinciple in Ireland so far as actually
to excite rebellion. And then it piteously represented to
the Irish remonstrants that the necessities of the party
required such expedients, and that, in fact, the end must
be taken to justify the means of deceit and falsehood
by which it was brought about, We can state, upon
the most positive authority, that such language has
been held, such explanation made, such excuse
Mr. CLAY, THE AMERICAN ORATOR.— given by persons who speak the sentiments of Sir
From the Secretary of the Treasury I drove to the Robert Peel ; and whilst we abstain from giving to this
lodgings of Mr. Henry Clay, the celebrated Senator double-faced policy the reprobation that is due, we
from Kentucky. I found this extraordinary man, who trust that, without the use of Billingsgate language, we
soli then already a little past his prime, the very type of have proved that there is no term of abuse sufficiently
what passes in Europe, ever since the clever caricatures strong to mark its infamy." Now, we have distinct
of Mr-. Trollope, as "an Ank.rlean chareeter." Mr. authority to state, that so far as Sir Robert Peel is
ei 1Y at :11,1:, of s„ t lies , sea-Indian, half- concerned, there is not, and has riot been, the shadow of
savage count: hoe ever, the foundation fur any part of the above statement ; that he
int. Uectuel ?erongly prodotninats over the animal. His has neith,r received, nor heard of, any such communica-
manners, at first sight, appear to he extremely vulgar ; tions from Irish Protestants as those alleged to have
and yet he is graceful, and even dignified, in his inter- been made ; that no explanations have been given on
course with strangers. He chews tobacco, drinks his behalf; and that nothing has passed by his autho-
whisky punch, gambles, puts his legs on the table or the rity, or within his knowklee, which could give the
c.ei,aea,, fled st;ta, as an American would say, " like blightest colour for arty one ass,:rtiun conlai-u'd in the
a r gular Kentucky hegelriver ;" and yet he is all gen- paragraph we have quoted. The whole st dement, in
tleness, poiitetiess, and e araiiality in tee sqcietY of la- fact, grave and circutnearitial though it seemeth, is
dies. Add to this, that his organs of speech are the nothing better titan it dirty, prAreate, impudent, ran-
met:A melodious ; and that, with great imaginetion and i coleus, Dewaing-street he, for which, of course, some
humour, he combines manly eloquence and the power other lie of equally respectable origin we be substituted
of sarcasm in the most extraordinary degree ; and it the very next Sunday.
will easily be conceived why he should have been able (From the Morning Advertiser.)
to captivate high and low, rhomme du salon, and the The Convention farce tui ns out a more laughable
" squatter" in the Western wilderness.—Grand's Aria- affair at its close than we could have been led to
that
cx-
tocracy in America. peet—great as we confess our expectations were in
DETERMINED SUICIDE.-011 Sunday morning, way—in the course of its progress. One of the Gies-
tween ei"ht and nine o'clock, a foreign gantlemani gow members has resumed his wonted avocation—an
who has for some time resided at the Exeter-hell Coffe.e- avocation which the fates never meant lie should relin-
house, committed suicide by blowing his brains out, quish—namely, that of vending, from the beck of his
It eppears that the uefortunate gentleman generally lay counter, such digAed eon-ow:elide; as V- 31.-!-eu's jet
the greater part of ti,e day in bell, an,: no not;cs was bleckieg, snuff, tobeecc, :r.ottle,l aetl 5C
taken of his absence at meals. In the evenin7, one of forth. In that way we cell icsu e the, cr:ond,)m demo-
the female servants wzls sent up stairs to rouse him ; cratic patriot, he is far mor profitably employed for
but, after knocking several times, and receiving no an- himself, and infinitely more usefully for society, than
swer, a forcible entrance was effected, when the unfor- than when haranguing his brother supporters of the
tunate man was discovered weltering in his blood, and physical-force theory in Bolt-court. Another of the
the bed clothes completely saturated. He had dis- ex-members of the defunct Convention has wisely
charged the contents of a -Pistol through his head, the resumed the use of his awl and last. He is a cobbler
upper part of which was blown to atoms. Some money by trade, and is now satisfied that, difficult as he
and various documents are in the hands of the police, may sometimes find to be the task of cobbling
which are likely to lead to the discovery of his family. old shoes, it is much easier than to cobble the Consti-