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

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1837.

lent Reformers, who, resenting the sudden interruption
of their favourite projects, not only resolved to resist a
Constitutional Administration, but formed an exten-
sive and successful organization to restore Lord Mel-
bourne to power. The consequence was, that though
Sir Robert Peel had brought to the new House of
Commons a great accession of Conservative strength, yet
not possessing a sufficient force to combat the formi-
dable opposition which men's sympathies rather than
their judgment had sent to the assistance of the Whigs,
the Right Hon. Baronet resigned. It was then found
that if the Constitutional Representatives were not suf-
ficiently numerous to effect much good, they were
at least strong enough to prevent a good deal of mis-
chief ; and it is here, in our opinion, that the nicely
balanced forces of the last Parliament have been pro-
ductive of incalculable benefit to the country. The
Radical theorists and the Whig mercenaries have been
kept in check ; the Established Church in this king-
dom has been preserved from spoliation, and the Pro-
testants of Ireland have been saved from being
swamped for ever by an ignorant Popish rabble. In
our conscientious judgment, the Peel Parliament has,
in a negative sense, been the salvation of the Monarchy.
It was a breakwater to resist the surges of democracy,
and to preserve the bulwarks of the 'Constitution. It
was an intermediate dispensation, weathering and mo-
derating the tempests which had preceded it ; calcu-
lated to give men time for calm reflection, and happily
to introduce that better order of things on which we
are about to enter. Now, in no part of the empire
has the Conservative influence of the last House of
Commons been more profitably appreciated than in
Scotland. And the people there have just shown this,
in the most remarkable manner, we will not say by in-
creasing, but even by not diminishing, the number of
their Constitutional Members. Speaking from what we
know of the facts, we avow, as we formerly did, in re-
gard to the Renfrew and Glasgow contests, before the
dissolution, that the vast majority of the Scotch consti-
tuency arc much more favourable to liberal principles
than even the electors in this country. For the most
part, they are Church Reformers to an extent that
here would not be listened to. They hate
Ecclesiastical disparity, rich livings, and cathe-
dral sinecures. This is true even of the Con-
servatives in that country. In short, the predilec..
tions of the great body of the people arc in favour
of the most thoroughgoing and searching reforms in
every department of our national institutions ; nor have
we a doubt, that they had been as unable as the
Kilkenny voters to distinguish between Reform and
revolution, they would have been strongly predisposed
to send all their members to the support of a Liberal
Ministry. The mere circumstance, therefore, of 19 or
20 Conservatives having been returned by the Liberal
constituencies of the north, for the express purpose of
exterminating the Melbourne Administration, affords
perhaps the most emphatic condemnation of the Whigs
which the faction have yet received. To what is this
owing ? Partly to their treatment of the Church of
Scotland, but chiefly to the O'Connell alliance and
O'Connell domination. The Scotch, whether Whig
or Tory, cannot endure the Agitator's name. He is
universally regarded as a blustering and unprincipled
knave. The copartnery whereby my Lords Melbourne
and Mulgrare are mixed up with him, is viewed with
, one common feeling of indignation and disgust. If

his vile chaffering can give the Whigs a dozen of of seats
in Ireland, their flagitious connection with him has
lost him fifty on this side of the Channel. In short,
it is O'Connell that sinks the ship. But to think of
throwing him overboard now is wholly out of the
question. It is a day too late :so down they all go.—
Times.

A fair opinion may now be pronounced on the corn -
position of the next House of Commons. The elecl-
tions, with the exception of some in Ireland, have aol
terminated, and no doubt is entertained of the result of
such as yet remain to be decided in that country. There-
fore, however consonant to the practice of good Gen/ -
mishits it mie:ht have been, during the heat of hatt e,
to keep up the ardour of the Liberals, by repeating
the shouts of triumph raised by their fellow Reformers
in some parts of the field, and restraining the cry of
defeat in others, it is now advisable to look calmly and
dispassionately to our losses and gains, and ascertain
the relative strengths of parties in the next House of
Commons, and the amount of forces which each of
the contending hosts will be able to muster in the
ensuing carniAign. Without wasting time in expos-
int, the absurd exaggerations of the Tories with
respect to their gains in Emgland, it nifs7,- at once
he admitted, that the successful manner in which
they contested the representation in this part of
the United Kingdom, is a subject of deep disap-
pointment and regret to the Reformers. This result
is clearly referable to Tory vigilance and activity in

attending to the registration—to the Chandos clause
of the Reform Act—to corruption, intimidation, and
the absence of the ballot ; but a knowledge of the
causes, unless as indicative of the evils to be guarded
against in future, affords no palliation to the mischief
of the present result. This palliative must be sought
elsewhere, and cheeringly we direct attention to the
powerful quota of auxiliaries which Reform receives
from Scotland and Leland—especially from the latter
country, and which will at least prove amply sufficient
to neutralise the effect of the reverses sustained in
England. To the many well and hard-fought fields
won by the indignant and oppressed " aliens" we have
to add Cork and Youghal, which, as was announced
in our second edition of Saturday, are secured to the
cause of justice and good government. On the whole,
therefore, the Reformers will be about as strong in the
ensuing House of Commons as they were in the last; so
that whatever turn events may take, there need be no
apprehension of a Tory Administration. But it is not
sufficient to check Toryism—it must be crushed. In

the last Parliament the faction was able, with a mi-
nority not stronger than it is likely to possess in the
next, and with the help of the hereditary Senate, to
defeat the most important of the measures proposed
for the improvement of our laws and institutions. The
great question for general consideration now is, the
mode by which the perpetration of similar outrages
may be prevented in the approaching Parliament. We
have with surprise, not to say indignation, perceived
some of our liberal Cotemporaries assume a tone most
decidedly pernicious—we trust not traitorously so—to
the great cause of popular Government. One recotn-
mends the people to be content with, and enjoy the
good they have already achieved, and not disturb them-
selves in seeking that which cannot be obtained with-
out harassing excitement. Another recommends the
Government to make its measures more moderate—
that is, to grant to the people maimed and defective
reforms, and thus conciliate the despotic and oppressive
yearnings of the Tories; others, again, in the exuberance
of self-complacency, seem to consider that, because the
return of the Tories to office is impracticable, there is
nothing more to be accomplished. This is not a time
for congratulation on negative advantages. As we
have said, Toryism must be not only checked, but
crushed. The good of the Reforms which we hare
already obtained can be enjoyed only by the accom-
plishment of other Reforms. If the progress of good
Government be suffered to stand still one day, it will
retrograde the next. The Reform Act, though carried
in our time, drew the nutriment which brought it to
maturity from the preceding generation—let its efficacy
not he impaired in our hands, but rather let us bequeath
to posterity proofs of our having also assisted in
developing the great and holy principle of civil and
religious liberty amongst all men, and consolidating
our laws on the basis of equality and justice. We
yield to none of our cotemporaries in exultation at the
prospective stability of the present Administration ; but
little will be gained to the nation, if that Administra-
tion he marred in the good it meditates by the malevo-
lence of a faction. To prevent this is now the first
object of solicitude. For Ministers to follow the
advice so injudiciously—we will not say insi-
diously—offered to them—to prune and cut down
their policy to the Tory taste and standard, would be
equivalent to an abdication of office. They might by
such a course strengthen themselves—though this is
doubtful—in the House of Commons; but they would
be lost in public esteem and confidence, and both their
influence and reputation would be irretrievable. On
the contrary, in proportion to the want of strength in
the House, Ministers must seek support out of doors,
and this is to be obtained only an unswerving adhe-
rence to the popular cause, and by affording to the
people tangible evidence of a desire to give a full 'and

fair acquiescence with all their just and feasible de-
mands. A bold and decisive policy must be pursued
—there must he no swerving to the right or the left—
the straight road is the only safe one. Ministers have
the confidence and approving wishes of their Sove-
reign ; let them unite with this—which they can do
most easily, by merely adhering to the principles which
bore them into office—the confidence and support of
the people, and what power can resist such a combina-
tion.—Morning Advertiser.
. Well have the counties of England and Wales done
their duty in the recent elections to the Crown and the
Constitution. They remembered the words of our
youthful Queen she said, " I have learned from my
infancy to respect and love the Constitution of my na-
tive country. It will be my unceasing study to main-
tain the reformed religion as by law established, secur-
ing at the same time to all the full enjoyment of reli-
gious liberty"—they remembered these words, and, re-
membering them, they were resolved to send to the
great council of the nation representatives who should
firmly and faithfully assist her Majesty in uphokling
that venerated Constitution which she professes to
love, and maintaining in all its integrity that " reformed
religion, as by law established," which she has sworn
to protect. Had the counties of England and
\Vales in the late elections given the preference
to candidates wearing the colours of a Ministry
who are harnessed to the chariot-wheels of the Irish
agitator, and who have by the mouth of their nomi-
nal chief admitted their intention of " inflicting
a heavy blow and great discouragement on Protest-
antism," they would have sealed the doom of that
Constitution to which the Queen has avowed the deep-
est attachment, and they would have surrendered to
its implacable enemies the citadel of that reformed
faith vrhich she declares herself as anxious to main-

tam as any of her illustrious predecessors of the House
of Brunswick, who derive from their connection with

the Protestant cause their title to the British Crown
The counties of England and Wales have, indeed,
spoken out—they have spoken in a voice which sounds
the knell of its approaching fate to the most incapable
and unprincipled Administration that ever lowered the
character and betrayed the interests of a mighty em-
pire. Wholly destitute of those claims upon the respect
and confidence of a people which intellect, honesty,
and statesmanlike talent confer, the Melbourne Minis-
try rely for their support and continuance in office upon
what,? Their disgraceful coalition with the man whom
they had previously denounced in the speech from the
Throne as the enemy of his country—the bigoted and
rancorous foe of the Protestant faith—the avowed hater
of our ancient institutions—the licentious disturber of
the peace of Ireland—the declared advocate for the dis-
memberment of the British empire ! It was by the aid
and co-operation of this brawling demagogue that the
" loyal Whigs" were enabled to 'drive the Ministry of
the late King's choice from office. It was by his
many-jointed " tail" that they clung to place during
the last two Sessions, in which their promotion of his
revolutionary schemes entirely stopped the progress of
safe and salutary Reform. Will they still endeavour
to hang on to power by means of that " tail," to cling
to office in defiance of the practical condemnation of
their dishonest and contemptible policy by the people
of England at the late elections ? That is the ques-
tion now to be solved. We believe they will attempt
to do it ; but we as firmly believe that the indignation
of the loyal and constitutional people of England
will be too strong for a Government that dares to
sway the country by means of Irish turbulence and
popish priestcraft. Incapable of standing by their
own strength, the " tail" will eventually facilitate their
downfall—a downfall as ignominious as their con-
duct has been unprincipled and their career disgsace-
ful. The most populous constituencies are those of t!le
counties, as they are also the most peaceful, moral, and
loyal of the population. Unstained with the vices that
flourish in such deadly rankness among the rabble of
great towns, and undcbauched in their loyalty to the
Crown and Constitution by the wild and debasing due •
trines of crazy philosophers and fanatic revolution-
mongers, they have exercised the elective francise with
the discriminatiqz juslgment and sober good sense which
are characteristsn of the unvitiated English understand-
ing. They have beaten the Ministry, though using
its Government influence in the most unscrupulous
manner, more than two to one. Can any Ministry set
at defiance such an expression of opinion on the part
of the English counties ? Impossible. But, taking
cities and boroughs along with die counties, a de-
cided majority of Conservatives has been returned
to Parliament by the electors not only of England,
hut of Great Britain. Will the Ministers dare to appeal
from the Protestant and constitutional electors of Great
Britain to the priestridden and ferocious slaves of po-
pery in Ireland ? Will they dare to appeal from the
decision of the enlightened constituencies of Great Bri-
tain to the result of the " skull and cross-bones" sys-
tem of electoral intimidation, fraud, superstition, and
violence, in Ireland ? Let them do so if they dare ;
though the late " rejected of Middlesex" has become
a joint of the " tail," he will not be able to avert their
doom, or even break their fall. We care not a single
straw whether Lord Melbourne has or has not declared
that he will obey the voice of the English constituen-
cies, and resign. He has done all the mischief in his
power to the vital interests of his country, though not
all the mischief which he intended when he spoke of
" inflicting a heavy blow and great discouragement
upon Protestantism." Let him resign or not resign,
it is enough for us to know that the next Parliament
will be even more Conservative than that which was
chosen tinder the auspices of Sir Robert Peel, and that
with such a Parliament it will be as idle an attempt for
the Melbourne Ministry to overthrow the Church, or
subvert the Constittition, as to think of pushing the
sun from its course.—Morning Herald.
The partisans of the present Ministry, admitting, as
they are compelled to-admit, that the English elections
are adverse to their party, seek consolation and confi-
dence in the result of the Irish elections. We do not
deny their right to resort to this source of consolotion
and of confidence. The vote of an Irish Member in
the House of Commons is a good vote. Upon all le-
gislative and administrative questions it will go, and
ought to go, as far as the vote of an English Member'.
It will, as we have seen, assist as much to keep a Mi-
.nistry in place. It will, therefore, as we have also
• seen, contribute as powerfully to get a tide waiter or
exciseman's appointment, or even to procure the less
• mercenary and more exalted honours of the Baronetcy
• or the Peerage. We own very frankly that there is
no Constitutional reason to be given—and we
should be sorry if there were—why an Irish is not as
good as an English vote in the House of Commons.
Making these admissions, as we do make them—
most unreservedly and frankly—we are, nevertheless,
inclined to suspect that any Administration, counting
in the House of Commons, as the present Adminis-
tration may, perhaps, be enabled to count, a majority
of not less than eight, and not more than sixteen
would, if it had the choice, prefer that the eight or
the sixteen should be composed in part of British
and in part of Irish Members, rather than that it
should be found in a decided minority in one part of
the Union, and in a majority a little more decided in
the other. We are proceeding cautiously here, as in
a matter of such grave importance we feel bound to
proceed. What we venture to assert is no more than
this, that any Ministry imbued with a constitutional
spirit would rather have in their favour in the House
-of Commons a little majority of Irish Members, and a
little majority of British, than a majority considerably
larger composed exclusively of either class of Members.
In this mode of stating the case we do not intend that
there should be, and we hope there is not, any dispa-
ragement to either country. Excepting in so far as
the two countries are distinguished from each other by
the comparative number of representatives which they
can respectively send to the Imperial Parliament, there
in a constitutional sense, no difference between
them. And there is no man, of whichever side of St.
George's Channel he be a native or a denizen, whO
would rejoice more sincerely than ourselves that, in a
moral and a social sense, the same equality could rea-
suont
feabiglnyed be
satisfactionasserted if
It wwoeuldb be
couldtoi us ati source of
there is not, morally and socially, any more honestly say
nptohlai-t
poli-
tically and constitutionally,' a difference between the
value of an Irish vote in the House of Commons and that
of an English vote. Nor do we entirely despair that
the time may
.come when this, one of the most fervent
of our aspirattouspwill be realised. It were & CoSIISUM.

mation devoutly to be wished ; but it is one which can
only be contemplated in conjunction with certain condi-
tions obviously and absolutely essential to its accom-
plishment ; and we must fairly own that we do not
sec any probability of the immediate completion of
these conditions. Before Irish votes in the Impe-
rial Parliament can be of equal moral and social
value to English votes it must have ceased to be in
the power of any single individual, however richly en-
dowed with the gifts of nature or the advantages of
fortune, to dictate to the people what Representatives
they shall elect. This condition is absolute and un-
qualified. The patronage of an individual, however
distinguished, can never be placed in competition with
the suffrages of a nation. It is natural, indeed, and
inasmuch as it is natural it is right, that in every
country there should be persons to whom the people
look up as to their counsellors and guides in all social
and political emergencies. But to give moral and
social importance to the legislative Representatives of
a people it is another essential condition that those
to whom that people habitually resort for counsel and
guidance, should be men who do not habitually set all
moral and social obligations at defiance. There is a
proper and natural reluctance to yield legislative autho-
rity to a people which makes to itself a merit of resist-
in t-, the law, and gives its confidence exclusively to one
whose only or whose greatest merit is that he has
frequently taught it how this might be done with
impunity. It seems necessary, also, before any consi-
derable moral weight can attach to the legislative re-
presentatives of a people that the latter should be
capable of electing representatives without exhibiting
any peculiar predilection for perjury, or any distinguish-
ing' aptitude to violence. Fraud, or perjury, or brute
force brought systematically into action should not be
predominant in, electing the representatives of A people
upon whose exercise of their elective franchise the fu-
ture Government of the United Kingdom, and of its
dependencies in every quarter of the globe, is to de-
pend. To the people of Great Britain these yeflec-
tions will not be new, nor, however, trite, will they be
generally deemed either unseasonable or unimportant.
They are forced upon us by our Ministerial contem-
poraries, who, acknowledging that their patrons no
longer enjoy the confidence or respect of the electoral
body of Great Britain, make their success in the Irish
elections a subject of arrogant boast and a source of
triumphant exultation.—Morning Post.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.---Cx ornom,:- lor. 12.
MACNAMARA V. THE SHERIFF OF' SURREY.

This was an action brought by the plaintiff to recover
damages from the Sheriff of Surrey for false arrest. Lewis
Levy, as Sheriff's officer, had been instructed to execute a
warrant of arrest against Mrs. Hirley, in consequence of
certain debts which she was alleged to have contracted.
The sheriff's officer had gone to Mrs. Hirley's houso in
Euston-place, and there took into custody Miss Macnamara,
instead of Mrs. Hirley, her sister. The plaintiff was then
taken to her own attorney's office in Red Lion-square, the
officer compelling her to walk all the way, notwithstanding
her request to be allowed to go into a coach, in conse-
quence of suffering from a sore in her foot. After being
about an hour in custody, and the sheriff's officer being as•
tistied that he had arrested the wrong person by mistake,
the plaintiff was allowed to return home. Several wit-
nesses were called to prove that Miss Macnanaara was the
wrong person arrested, and that she suffered severely from
being compelled to walk to Red Lion-square.
Morris Levy was the party who arrested the plaintiff.
Went to her house one morning about nine o'clock ; told
her that he had come from the solicitor of one of her cre-
ditors. She said she knew all about it, and that the party,
the solicitors, and witness were all a set of rascals. He
asked whether her name was not Hirley, but she said she
would not answer that question. Witness then asked the
servant what the lady's name was, but the plaintiff desired
her not to say what it was. He then said she must go
with him. She said it was all wrong. He repeated that
she must go with him, on which she said, " If you take me
you'll do it at your peril." Witness said that if plaintiff
satisfied him that she was the wrong person; he would not
take her. He proposed she should go to the solicitors of
of the arresting creditor, but she refused, saying she would
only go to her own in Red Lion-square. He then agreed
to go with her there, on which she requested that she might
have a coach. He told her she might have one, but if 80,
she must pay for it herself. This she would not do, and
then they walked together to Red Lion-square. Plaintiff
did not complain to him of a sore foot. Did not say she
might hare a wheel-barrow if she chose. On their reach-
ing the plaintiff's solicitor's office, on asking one of the
clerks the name of the lady she desired him not to answer.
Being at last satisfied that he had taken the wrong party,
witness said he was sorry for the mistake, but that it was
entirely her own fault, as she refused to give him her name.
He then told her she was quite at. liberty to depart. He
afterwards sent a person in his employ to plaintiff's solicitors
to say that he was willing to make her any reasonable com-
pensation for the loss which had occurred.
His LORDSHIP summed up at some length. If the Jury
believed that Morris Levy committed the trespass the ver-
dict must be against him. If, on the contrary, they thought
it was committed by Lewis Levy, then the verdict must be
against him. It was for the Jury to assess the amount of
damages, whichever might be the party against whom the
verdict might be returned. The verdict must be for the
plaintiff, as it was admitted that a trespass had been com-
mitted.

A short conversation then ensued between his Lordship
and the Counsel for the defence, when his Lordship said
that if the Jury found a verdict in favour of Lewis Levy
they should give nominal damages ; but stating what they
considered the real damages should he, which would give
the Sheriff an opportunity of paying those damages without
another action being brought. If, however, the verdict
should be against Lewis Levy, the party charged in the in-
dictment as having arrested the plaintiff, then they would
give the right amount of damages at once.
The Jury, after having retired about a quarter of an
hour, returned a verdict against Lewis Levy—Damages 651.