The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-13 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION IN THE PRO
VINCES.

We subjoin some short extracts from the country
papers, Tory as well as Liberal, of to-day (Saturday.)
The Jamaica Bill has proved fatal to the existence
of the Melbourne Ministry ; or perhaps it would
be more correct to say, that Ministers seized
the opportunity of a virtual defeat on that Bill
to execute a previously settled plan of resignation.
Had Ministers, notwithstanding the bare majority
which supported them on Monday night, still clung to
office, there would have been no surprise in any quarter.
They abandoned the Appropriation principle and the
Church-rate question, and might have modified their
Jamaica Bill, so as to secure Tory support, with-
out any any greater sacrifice of credit with the
country. Moreover, Sir R. Peel had expressly de-
clared that he did not view the contest on the Jamaica
Bill as a party struggle. When, therefore, Lord John
Russell, in his closing speech on Monday night, declared
that he viewed the opposition to the bill as a party
opposition, and at the same time acknowledged that
some Members, whose support he had expected, were
about to vote against him, it appeared tolerably plain
that Ministers anticipated defeat, and had made up
their minds to seek an opportunity of resigning. Ac-
cordingly, on Tuesday, Viscount Melbourne in the
Lords, and the Home Secretary in the Ccmmons, an-
nounced that Ministers had tendered their resignation ;
which, Lord Melbourne added, the Queen had accepted.
Hull Advertiser.
We thank God for this great deliverance. We do
not believe that the joy of her Majesty's loyal subjects
—of all, in fact, who love their country and its glorious
Constitution—will be damped for one moment by the
rumour of Lord Normanhy's accession to the Premier-
ship, at the head of an Ultra-Radical Administration.
That rumour was rife enough in London on Tuesday
evening, but it obtained no credit among well-informed
persons ; and the most prevalent opinion was, that
even Lord Melbourne himself would endeavour to dis-
charge the heavy load upon his conscience, and to re-
quite the country, in some degree, for the innumerable
evils of his own administration, by advising the
Queen to send for the Duke of Wellington. The
Whigs have left their successors a grievous legacy. In
Canada, in India, in the West Indies, in Ireland, and
among the armed revolutionists at home, there will be
sufficient occupation for the most diligent and gifted
statesmen ; but the country knows where sudh states-
men are to be found—the Queen knows it also—and
so do the poor defeated Whigs ; and since, after having
lost all besides, they have still—some of them at least—
a stake in the country, it is not likely, even in the
bitterness of their desperation, that they will abuse
what influence they may still have with her Majesty, by
betraying her into worse hands than their own. A

post or two will show.—Cornwall Gazette.

The sincere friends of Liberal opinions must regret that
the Whigs, notwithstanding all their faults,, have left
office, to give way to the Tories. Everything will then
depend upon the manner in which the Tories conduct
themselves ; if they enter into a hot-headed crusade
against the Catholics and Dissenters, against the
Chartists, against the press, against Liberal opinions in
general, they will peril the throne and the monarchy ;
but if they wear their honours meekly and con-
sent to act upon moderate principles, they may ma-
nage for a time to steer the helm, for they will receive
the support of the milk-and-water Whigs, who dread
the expenses of a new election, and thus will be enabled
to work a pliant majority of the House of Commons, in
such a way as to further their views, and keep office for
a time.-IVottinghani Review.
Finality has killed them. We have often predicted

the consequence of attempting to found a Government
upon a basis so miserably narrow and insecure, but our
voice was unheard amidst the flatteries of more obse-
quious followers. Lord Melbourne has now discovered
too late that it is to the people, and not to the Crown,
that a Minister tprofessing to be a Liberal Minister,
must look for real power. For the first time during the
last century the Crown was heartily with us. The
Queen was the prop and ornament of the Liberal cause.
Every feeling of her heart is wounded by the change
now forced upon her ; but the fatal schism that has
been allowed to grow up in our ranks, consigns her, in
common with ourselves, to the tender mercies of Sir
Robert Peel.—Hertford Reformer.
A few years' trial of Tory Government may probably
convince the Reformers of England of the folly of
quarrelling amongst themselves. They have split
themselves up into parties innumerable, and every party
has become a Sisyphus rolling its own particular stone
up hill. The fate of Sisyphus has now come upon
them ; they are all at once rolled down the hill, and
having found one common level, may in process of time
learn to work together for the attainment of a common
object. It is a remarkable coincidence, that the very day
on which the Chartists in Convention were em-
ployed in pasting together and rolling up their
famous petition, the Radicals in Parliament opposed
a measure for ensuring the rights of freedom to
the West India Negroes, and so displaced the Ministry ;
and that the day appointed for the parade of presenting
this ponderous petition was the day which brought the
announcement of a restoration of the Tories to power.
In conclusion, we cannot but express our astonishment
at the extraordinary conduct of Mr. Williams on this
occasion, and Moro especiarry-b....4.«...0.kn0wtchec h©
was written to on behalf of the•friends of -the Negroes-•
in this city, with a special requeit that be would vote in
favour of the measure, considered, as it was, an essential
step in order to secure to those Negroes that boon,
out of which, up to this hour, the West India proprie-
tors and the Jamaica Assembly, which are almost sy-
nonymous, have contrived to cheat them. We cannot
but think that our old friend Edward Bulwer would
have done better.—Coventry Herald.
We have no room for comment upon this joyful intel-

ligence, but must content ourselves with laying before
the reader the official details of it. It is a glorious
event, and, though foreseen by the whole country, not
the less welcome now that it has come—come, too, by
no party trick, no dirty manoeuvre, like that which
drove Sir Robert Peel from office, but from the sheer
inability of a sinking and despised Government any
longer to keep its hold of the power it has so long
abused.—Kcntisls Observer.

The Whigs are out of office ! The Irish tail is out
of joint ; and England—Conservative, constituti9nal
England—is again under the protection of her own
patriot statesmen, whose leaders are Wellington, Peel,
and Stanley. There is much to encourage us in the
powerful talent and untouched honesty of those upon
whom will now devolve the administration of the
affairs of the nation. It cannot be now, as formerly,
that by a reckless coalition the country may be again
deprived of the services of such men as Sir Robert
Peel, Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, (supposing the
Duke does not take office.) Once was the first-named
statesman ungenerously driven from office before he had
been allowed to introduce a single measure ; but now—
and whenever an election shall take place it will be
clearly shown—the people of England are determined
that Sir Robert Peel and the Conservatives shall have
a fair trial.—. Essex Standard.

It is with unspeakable satisfaction that we are this
week enabled to record the deeply-gratifying fact that
the high places of our Government are no longer dis-
graced by the Melbourne Ministry, which vacated office
on Tuesday, just in time to avoid being literally thrust
out. It is impossible to overrate the joy which the intelli-
gence of this event has excited, and which it will conti-
nue to excite, from one end of the country to the other.
They are out at last," is the almost universal exclama-
tion of joy—" the most mischievous, most selfish, and,
in every respect, most disreputable Ministers that ever
degraded and rendered contemptible the name of Go-
vernment, are out at lastV—Balh Chronicle.
The country may be congratulated that the official
reign of Whiggery is at an end. After adhering to the last
chance of place with a pertinacity that would have been
creditable in a good cause, the self-styled " Liberal" Mi-
nisters have sunk. What Ministry may be now formed
in the first instance to succeed the Melbourne Cabinet is
of little moment. The feelings of the country are in
the right channel : the Church and the Constitution
are safe ; and the Conservatives will have to take office

in a very brief time, with the all but unanimous ac-
clamations of the people. If we have a preference,
indeed, we would rather that Lord Normanby and
Lord Durham should first try their hands at an Admi-
nistration.—Dorset County Chronicle.
The Melbourne Cabinet is broken up, chiefly by the
secession, from their ranks, of a body of Radicals, whom
we hope never to see in possession of means to work
the mischief which they purpose, and to whom the late
Ministry have been as firmly and inflexibly opposed as
the most unyielding Conservative or the most rabid
Tory.—Bath Herald..
The intelligence of the resignation of the Govern-
ment, was received here on Wednesday morning, by
the mail, and fully confirmed by the third edition of
The Sun, containing the Ministerial announcement, in
both Houses of Parliament. We are surprised that
the Radical Members should lend themselves to such
a cause, for it is to the aid afforded by the Radicals,
that the Tories are indebted for their present victory.
, —Western Times.

We think that the cause of sound Practical Reform
is quite as likely to be forwarded under the premiership
of Sir Robert Plausible, as under an administration of
which Lord John Finality was leading member ; and
we are further of opinion, that gratitude for the Reform
Bill ought not to lead us to express regret for the
downfall of one who, calling himself a constitu-
tional Reformer, could contend that there ought
to be an opening to legislative honours for shrewd law-
yers and illustrious warriors, though they might not be
acceptable to popular constituencies. The man who
can thus defend one of the foulest species of nomina-
tion—that of the corruption of small constituencies to
procure the return of men not popular enough for large
constituencies—and thus directly support a principle, or
rather a no-principle, he denounced in 1832—is altoge-
ther unworthy of the support of honest Reformers, and
the continuance of such a man in power as Minister,
professing to head the Reform party, could be nothing
but a detriment to the cause.—Hertford Reformer.