The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-12 00:00:00

antagonist. Measures appeared upon the one side to
be badly devised, add %scald.; acted upon ; while upon
the other well-directed sehemes were ably carried ieto
effect, and nothing was left undone to insure the Apos-
tate's success. It is one thing for a set of men to wish
well to a cause and feel that its triumph has much to
do with the well-being and prosperity Of society ; but
it is another and quite a different matter for them so
to act as to effectually promote the practical triumph
of a hat they so much admire in theerv. In this re-
speet Ili formers have to learn a lesson from the
Tories, who sre It-loch better tacticians than their
adversaries. In nddition to the other errors and mis-
takes in management upon the part of Mr. Leader's
Committee, theme was a shameful apathy among
many of his supporters—a holding hack—a sort of
consciousness that they ought to go forward, with an
inclination at the same time to stand still. All this
was bad, and it was truly melancholy to observe, that
while Sir Robert Peel was at the poll-booth recording
his vote in favour of Sir Francis Burdett, a quarter
before eight o'clock yesterday morning, and while his
brother-in-law, George Dawson, was enacting the part
of a nutter tully, a considerable portion of the liberal
constituency could be scarcely induced to come forward
and perform their duty---:a duty they owed to them-
selves, their party, and their country. Some persons
seem to imagine, very erroneously, that because the
electors of Westminster have failed, or at least a large
section of them, to act as they ought, that the Minis-
try Irould resign. This, we think, they will not do.
At all events we know it is a step they should not take.
A Government that has been so sustained by a gene-
rous people as to be able to carry on business in a
House of Commons assembled by a Tory leader, should
not upon slender grounds forsake their supporters.
The people will, we maintain, do their duty—the
-Ministry have only to do theirs, and oppose to the
death a profligate faction.—Morning Advertiser.
The Westminster election is, in every point of view,
the most important election of which it has ever been
the duty of a journalist to announce the result. First
look at the constituency. It is a constituency notorious
.onring 20 years for its support of extreme Radicalism,
as opposed to every thing moderate, every thing ra-
tional, every thing constitutional. It is a constituency
which has roared itself hoarse in other years for ballot,
for short Parliaments, for universal suffrage. It is a
constituency which rejected the Tory Sir Murray
Maxwell for the Whig Sir Samuel Romilly—the
Whig Mr. Lamb for the Radical Sir John Cam Hob-
house—the Radical Sir John Cam Hobhouse for the
ultra-Radical Colonel Evans. It is the constituency
which, before all others; the miserable servants of
Mr. O'Connell would have selected as the jury in
whose eyes they might find favour for their most
profligate intentions and their most puerile perform,
ance. Then, look at the crisis at which the struggle
was to be tried. It is a crisis which, for the first
Uwe since the enactment of the Reform Act, political
parties arc assuming a recognised position upon in-
telligible grounds. The vague cry of Whiggery and
Toryism is without sense, when we find Lord Palmers-
ton landed as a Whig, and Lord Stanley bespattered
as a Tory. The idle babble about undefined Reform
is simply ridiculous when we see Lord Melbourne, the
ancient enemy of Reform, glorified as its patron—and
Sir J. Graham, the consistent supporter of Reform,
stigmatised as its foe. Antagonist principles are now
marshalled in hostile array ; antagonist watchwords are
nearly forgotten. On the one side we have the ruin
of the Established Church, the abolition of the here-
ditary Peerage, the introduction into the representation
of the people of a thousand fantastic and speculative
innovations, and the maintenance of a Ministry dis-
posed to forward, or to permit, all these revolutionary
movements. On the other side, we have the pre-
servation of the Established Church, the support of
the Hereditary Peerage, the adherence to the Re-
form Act as a settlement of questions relating to the
representation of the people, and
.hostility to a Mi-
nistry ready to keep (ace at the sacrifice of all these
interests. This is a fair statement of the grounds
on which battle was joined in Westminster. Mr.
Leader was for the voluntary principle, for Peerage
Reform, for the changes in the Reform Act, for time
present Ministry. Sir Francis Burdett, condemned
the voluntary principle, opposed Peerage Reform, re-
sisted changes in the Reform Act, ridiculed and repro-
bated the present Ministry. Next, look at time candi-
dates. Mr. Leader had commenced a canvass before
Sir Francis Burdett had dreamed of a vacancy. Mr.
Leader had thrown down the gauntlet, which Sir Fran-
cis Burdett merely did not refuse to take up. Mr.
Leader had the aid of all the Republicans, with whom
he agrees, and of all the Whigs, with whom he differs.
_He was assisted alike by Mr. Hume, in whom he sees
an English Soion, and by Lord John Russell, in
whom he rebukes a modern Lord North. Love of
principle, we suppose, brought Mr. Wakley's elo-
quence to his side ; love of place, we imagine, set
Sir John Campbell's name upon his poll. Sir
Francis Burdett could not, as we before suggested,
reckon upon a similar unanimity. Many friends of
time Conservative cause felt a reluctance to show
their attachment even to that great and glorious
cause when they found iu its champion the individual
who had been for so many years, though under very
different circumstances, its uncompromising enemy.
The unmeasured vehemence of language, the unre-
strained violence of tone, time letters written, the
speeches uttered, had had their effect : they had
charmed the mob who cheered the Baronet on former
occasions—they had disgusted the respectable electors,
on whose support he was on this occasion- to rely.
The Whir-Radical papers, in their daily eulogies of
tbe talents of Mr. Leader, aid their daily exposures
of the far-hack fooleries of Sir Francis Burdett, have
proved that this contest could not have been com-
menced under more favourable auspices far time party
of winch they are the advocates. But the fight was
fought upon principle, and upon principle has the
battle bcc.:4 won. Westminster has said distinctly
that her inhabitants venerate the Established Church ;
respect the hereditary Peerage ; desire to abide by the
Reform Act; loeshe and despise the present Ministry.
Upon these four subjects the R adicals chose their place,
their time, and their non ; and, upon their own chal-
lenge, they have been ignominiously defeated. They are
entitled to console themselves with the reflection that
the Ministers for whom their scorn is as hearty as our I
own, come in fer their full share of the disaster and'
the disgrace. Lord Palmerston, for years the
placeholder under Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh,
crawled to the poll for Mr. Wakley's nominee ; and
- Sir John Cain flobliouse, in his zeal for the public
good forgetting his private resentments, made common
cause with the s:urdy patriots who, in this fair city of
restminster, not very long aeo, thiokina then as 110 W
-
they think, and acting dim as now they act, hooted
and pelted this same Sir John Cam Hobhouse from
the hstings. We congratulate the country upon the
hopes for her future peace and prosperity which this
election must inspire. We congratulate the people of
Westminster upiem their release from the dictation of a
piebeiatm oligarchy, a Caucus of '' asses and pismires,
which for too many years has pretended to rule over
their opinions and to dispose of their suffrages. And
we congratulate Sir Francis Burdett upon his final
alienation fa no the gang of paltry plotters, the Cati-
lines of C haling. cross and Drury-lane, whose alliance
must often have made even success unsatisfactory, and
even popularity distasteful.—Morning Post.
Burdett, as we anticipated, has triumphed in West-
minster. He leis nobly emancipated that great metro-
politan borough from the domination of "the rump,"
:rid has proved that manly conduct, courage and prin-
ciple, can still command the admiration and support of
English electors, even in opposition to the most ran-
corous misrepresentations of party
_malevolence, the ut-
most influence of the Whig-Radical Government, and
the artifices of the false friends of the people. As to
the misled Mr. Leader, the chosen of the " rump,"
and time well -beloved of the " tail," he has lost Bridge-
water and not gained Westminster. His conceit has
got a cooling which is likely to last through the sum.
suer months, and the '' long purse well crammed with
gold," which his sponsor, Mr. Wakley, declared he
would " spend like a trump," is, we suspect, a good
deal lighter than when he entered the field to drive the
veteran champion of reform from the station which he
occupied when time Whigs fought against reform, and '
the station which he will still occupy in fighting against
the Whigs and revolution. The numbers at the close