The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF' THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Reformers have gained--
In Banffshire—Duff for Ferguson.
This we did not anticipate, so that the Ministerial ma-
jority will be greater than we stated on Saturday. Sir
James Graham, in his farewell address to the electors
of East Cumberland, complains of broken promises.
" I have redeemed my pledge," he says. " Every
elector has had an opportunity of recording his vote ;
and when I consider the number of those who have
honoured me with their undivided support, and surn
up the promises of split votes between me and one of
the candidates, I still feel that I was justified in my an-
ticipation of success. These promises have been
broken ; I have been deceived, and am defeated." Sir
James has been deceived by himself, and not by the
Cumberland electors. After the appearance of the
requisition, with the list of signatures to it, he
had no excuse for anticipating success, and we
do not believe he went to the poll with the
slightest hope. Why he went is, like many
other parts of his conduct, difficult to understand.
" The charge against me (says Sir James) is, that
I relinquished office and left my friends in power
because on a great principle I differed from them."
The charge against you, Sir James, is that you relin-
quished the opinions which obtained for you your ap-
pointment to office, and that you not only changed
your opinions, but on all occasions displayed the ut-
most malice towards your former colleagues. Whether
you were always a Tory at heart, and affected Radi-
calism, or were really a Radical, and now affect To-
ryism, is a question which those who know you best
seem
at a loss how to answer, as they do not ap-
pear inclined to give you credit for having ever been
sincere in any of the parts you have acted. This,
however, is certain, Sir James ; you are a clumsy actor.
Having been so fortunate as to be made First Lord
of the Admiralty, an office so much beyond your de-
serts that the appointment excited some surprise at the
time, you have contrived to thrust yourself out of
office, and to manage matters so that neither Whigs
nor Tories will ever place any confidence in you. The
Tories seem hardly less satisfied at your rejection
by the yeomen of East Cumberland than the Re-
formers. You have no friends in any quarter. Your
doom is sealed. Never was political annihilation more
complete. The Leeds Mercury has some sensible ob-
servations on the subject of the general election. It
justly remarks that the two grand blots on the Reform
Bill were foisted into it against the wishes of its au-
thors, by the cunning and strenuous efforts of the To-
ries, but that the mischief from this cause has exceeded
all anticipation.
" Where," says our contemporary, " have the principles
of Reform most signally triumphed at this general elec-
tion now on the eve of completion ? In the largo cities
and towns, and in a few of the counties—East Cumber-
land, for example—where the original constituency has
been least changed. And where have the Tories defeated
the advocates of those principles ? In most of the English
counties, and in the boroughs where the old freemen still
anxiously wait to sell a national trust to the highest bid-
der. Look at Leeds, Bradford, and all the influential bo-
roughs of the West Riding, noted for the intelligence and
patriotism of their inhabitants, for illustration of the former
assertion : look at Liverpool and South Lancashire for
proof of the latter. Well may the thousands of high-
minded and independent Reformers in the first port of the
kingdom reflect with bittern'ss on their evil fate in being
linked to a body of drunken hirelins; freemen ; and well may
the thousands of high-minded and independent Reformers
in the first commercial and manufacturing district in the
kingdom exclaim indignantly against the clause which puts
it in the power of a couple of hundred landlords to stifle,
by their serfs, the true voice of an immense and liberal
constituenc‘:."
The Leeds Mercury adds, that time and various
causes w.ll diminish the numbers and influence of the
freemen ; but with the tenantry-at-will the case is dif-
ferent. Two modes are pointed out by our Contempo-
rary as resorted to by the Tory aristocracy : Ist, By
emitting up land into separate tenancies of 50/. annual
v:due ; and, 2d, by nominally, and only nominally,
subdividing existing tenancies of larger amount ; so
that, for example, if a father of a family rent a farm of
1501. yearly value, they place his name, and those of
two of li.s sons, on tlie registers as tenants-at-will for
501. each. It used to be said of the Irish 40s. free-
holdere of former times, that they were driven to the
poll like flocks of sheep. This description now ap-
plies to the tenantry of England. They are bereft of
all independence, and compelled to vote as their land-
lords plume.
" Is not the fact. notorious," says the Leeds ilierenty—
" have not the Reformers of this very borough of Leeds
Yen, within a week after the victory won by the exercise
of their own unbiassed suffrages, Tory landlords and
stewards leading tenantry to the poll more as if they were
a flock of sheep than men endowed wiih judgments and
wills of their own ? Who ever heard of the residents
within any particular town or uninfluenced district being
unanimous in their opinions on any subject ? Can it, then,
be believed that without the exercise of a power which is
,not less felt for being unseen, every 50/. tenant of one in-
dividual will have precisely the same political opinions as
his fellow-tenant? No, this unique unanimity must be
attributed to one of two causes—ignorance and indifference
to polities in the tenantry, or real, though veiled, intimida-
tion on the part of the landowners."
The Tories may well boast of the county elections,
for they are the result of the skill with which they
contrived to nullify the Reform Bill. In consequence
of the 501. tenantrr-at-will clause, the county Members
are really returned by the landlords ; and it will only be
necexsary hereafter to know who possesses the land in
a district, to tell the result of an election. For this
evil the only remedy is the ballot. The ignorance of
the agriculturists is no doubt an evil; but their de-
pendent situation is the great evil. Something must
be done to remedy it, or a county election will be a
complete farce. There seems to be now no difference
of opinion among Liberal men respecting the ballot.
This general election has made every Liberal a con-
vert to it.—Morning Chronicle.
On Saturday night, a Ministerial print, which lays
exclusive claim to the knowledge and management of
S_:otch affairs, insinuates, by means of a quotation from
a northern associate, that the people of Scotland have
returned precisely the same number of representatives
to support Lord Melbourne's Government as they did
two years ago to oppose that of Sir Robert Peel. Of
course, we need not say that such an insinuation (for
the coiner takes care not to give it the stamp of absolute
assertion) is wholly unfounded. At the last general
election the number of Liberals returned by Scotland
was exactly 35 ; whereas, even on the doubtful as-
sumptions that the Whigs shall retain Argyleshire, and
that Mr. Howard of Sutherland, is a thorough Mi-
nisterialist, we find that on the present occasion the
utmost they can muster is only thirty-three. The
shabby nocturnal to whom we allude, finds it necessary
to forget that, during the last session, we relieved the
Whigs almost simultaneously of the two counties
of Renfrew and Ross, both of which we still retain.
On the other hand, previous to 1835, the seats pos-
sessed by the Conservatives in that country were no
mote than nine. When Sir Robert Peel asked the
nation to give a verdict upon the formation of his Go-
vernment, Scotland, concurring with the majority of
the English constituencies, sent 18 Members to his
support. Two, as we have said, were afterwards
added : and now, when the Right Hon. Baronet is out
of office, she has already returned 19 Conservatives in
opposition to the Whigs, with the absolute certainty
of adding Banffshire, to complete her former comple-
ment—and very probably Argyleshire, to turn the scale.
One or two instructive remarks rise out of these facts,
to which we would call the attention of our readers.
It is often alleged, and with much truth, that in
ordinary cases the issue of an appeal to the people '
may generally be expected to he highly favourable to
the Ministry by whom it is made. No doubt, such a
result is often modified by circumstances. Had Sir ,!
Robert Peel's Parliament been called together in the
common course of affairs, there is every reason to
believe that its views, as supporting those of the then
Premier, would have formed no exception to the usual
rule. At that precise juncture, however, it so hap-
pened that the appeal was made to the country under
every possible disadvantage to the Conservative cause.
Lord Melbourne had been abruptly, if not caprici-
ously, dismissed from office, for reasons which, though
highly satisfactory to the King, were neither appre-
ciated. nor even distinctly known by the country at
large. Accordingly, while the discarded Whigs were
warmly sympathized with by a vast proportion of the
constituency, there were multitudes of the more vio-