The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 1839

Now, in differing very materially from our Con-
temporary as to the conduct of the Government
with respect to the proceedings of the Chartists,
for we have uniformly censured it, we have
more than once stated, that they neither went so
far nor so fast as the majority of their supporters
amongst the middle classes. We have long known
that they were importuned to prosecute
STEPHENS and others ; we believe ti:cy
were threatened with opposition by their
present friends unless they did prosecute them, and
that statement is confirmed by the observations of
the Examiner. The Ministers would unquestion-
ably have been supported by very large majorities,
both in Parliament and in the country, had they
proposed any coercive measures to Parliament.
Nevertheless we maintain such coercive mea-
sures were not warranted by the temporary
blustering of a few demagogues on the one hand,
and the temporary terror of the middle classes on the
and we always have ad-
mitted,otherthe Ministers as
that7e
tquite
conductadmit,
of
com-
pared to the conduct of the Tories, twenty years
ago, was fully justified, and deserved even to be fa-
vourably spoken of; but we must contend that the
conduct of the Reform Ministry ought to be judged
of in the year 1839 by a very different standard
from the conduct of the CASTLEnEAGH Ministry
in 1819.
The conduct of the people was at the two pe-
riods totally different. In 1819 there were secret
and armed conspiracies, materials for green bag
reports ; in 1839, everything said and done by the
Chartists and their friends has been openly and
publicly said and done ; there has been no secresy,
and not a particle of evidence, we believe,
could be obtained against the Chartists beyond
that which has appeared in the columns of The
Sun and other Newspapers. The impracticable
nature of their schemes in 1839 has been the
theme of ridicule in the purely Whig and Tory
Journals ; what they proposed in 1819 was so'
practicable that the principal changes then de-
manded have since been carried into effect. Be-
cause the Sacred Month was a manifest ab-
surdity, unless the course of nature could have
been stopped; and because the arming of one
class 'against another was so 'palpably wicked
that it never had the support of any great number
of the people, the Chartist effervescewe might
safely have been suffered to die a natural death.
In fact, it was dying out ; the leaders had quar-
relled amongst themselves ; they knew or dreaded
that some of their most noisy orators were traitors,
and before STEPHENS was arrested, dissensions
existed amongst the Chartists, which proved their
combination to be impotent.
On one occasion it was stated in the House
of Commons that the Manchester massacre
had united the working classes of the North in fa-
vour of Parliamentary Reform, and made many
converts to it. But for the conduct of the Minis-
try in 1819, which was a continual theme of re-
proach in all the Liberal Journals, by whom it was
never forgotten nor forgiven, it may well be doubted
whether Reform would have been carried in 1832.
The conduct of the _ASTLEREACH Ministry
caused the success of what then passed for Radical
Reform, and the Whigs may now dread lest the
Persecution of the Chartists in 1839 should cause
the success of unrepresented Chartism in 1830.
" Where there is the widest difference," says
the Examiner, repeating a sentiment we
have before expressed, though expressing it
in a better manner, " between the Whig policy
and the Tory policy there is the greatest tranquil-
lity ; where there is the least difference between the
Whig policy and the Tory policy, there is the
largest amount of disaffection and tendency to com-
motion." On all these reasons which the
Whigs were bound to weigh and examine, and
were bound to depart as widely from the bru-
tal, coercive policy of the Tories as possible, we
cannot approve of their conduct towards the Char-
tists. Particularly we cannot approve of their pro-
secuting LOVETT and COLLINS. Though we
heartily join with the Examiner in giving them
credit for having resisted the temptation afforded
by the applications and threats of their supporter;
a comprehensive view of their own situation, of the
relative condition and knowledge of the people at
the two periods, and of the certain future progress
of knowledge, should have prevented them from
giving importance to Chartism by a Government
prosecution of the Chartist leaders.
We have said so much in justification of our
difference from so Liberal and so clever a Journal as
the Examiner ; but what we wish especially to
notice in the paragraph is, that throughout it,
our Contemporary appears to have no other rule for
judging the Whigs, no higher criterion of what is
right and excellent in politics, than the conduct of
the Tories. It is enough for our enlightened and
Liberal Contemporary, that the present Ministers
have not adopted, as the Tories would have
done, a new system of coercion ; that they
have not strengthened the laws which the
Tories for several years found •
strong enough to
repress sedition and rebellion. We read and re
mark such a train of argument with the deepest
sorrow. It is a sign that the Tory yoke has worked
deep into our necks. That brutal policy has been
so profoundly engraver on the mind of the country
that men of the greatest talents and most liberal
sentiments cannot efface it. They measure all
things by it. The Tories, in fact, still rule over
the nation by the influence they exert over our
thoughts. Their policy has become our habit, and we
assume that as the only criterion by which to judve
all statesmanship. Their long rule has fashioned
the nation, which is yet, if not thoroughly, a great
deal too Toryish. Nor will there be a chanc of
improvement till the Liberal Journals shall form a
higher idea of what the Whigs ought to do than
what the Tories did ; and till they cease to praise
a Reform Ministry, because it is not quite as coer-
cive and tyrannical, as the CASTLEREAGH Ministry
of 1819.

The friends of Reform cannot view the election
proceedings at Manchester without the deepest
concern. While the Tories have concentrated their
efforts in favour of one candidate, and are moving
heaven and earth to secure his return, the Liberal,
divided between the claims of two rival candidates,
are wasting, in a trumpery squabble among them-
selves, that strength which, if judiciously directed,
is more than sufficient to ensure a victory over
their opponents. This is a miserable state of
things, which, for the honour of the Reformers cf
Manchester, we hope will be put an end to without
a moment's delay. Every hour that such disunion
among them continues increases the danger to the
cause of Reform. We entreat them to accommo-
date their differences at once, and unite their exer-
tions in support of the candidate who shall be con-
sidered to have the strongest claim—that is to say, the
fairest chance of success. If they allow their personal
partialities to blind them to the interests of the
cause—if each section of the Liberals persist. in an
unreasoning and unyielding advocacy of the preten-
sions of its pet candidate, it requires net the spirit
of prophecy to foretel that both will be defeated.
It is a reproach, and, we cannot but admit, a
just reproach, to
the professors of Reform princi-
ples, that they are not so much alive to the
evil consequences of disunion as the Tories,
and that in too many instances the cause has
been sacrificed by want of unanimity among
those who ought to have sacrificed every other
consideration to its support. This is a fault
that the Tories never commit. They care nothing
for the individual to whom they give their suffrages.
With them the cause is everything. They fix
upon their man, and having done this, rally round
him with all their heart and soul. Whatever
may be the private opinions of individuals as to the
superior qualifications of another, these opinions
are never allowed to interfere with the para-
mount
interests of the party to which they are at•
tached. In the present ease, let it be remembered
too, the Tories have shown no small tact in their
selection of a candidate. Sir GEORGE MURRAY
is, perhaps, the most formidable opponent to the
Liberal interest that could have been brought
into the field, had the whole ranks of
Toryismbeen searched. Here is an additional
argument for union among the Liberal electors.
Instead of this bickering with one another about I

rights, but temptation, solicitation for it. Had GO-
vernment once raised the cry against the Chartists, it
would have been hounded on 'in any high-handed mea-
sures for suppressing the agitation. A Government
which, with any show of cause, raises the alarm that
property is in danger, may, in this country, have almost
carte blanche for legislation. Ministers, however,
having no disposition to infringe on liberty, saw no
sufficient reason for proposing any interference with
it. They relied on existing !aws, with a clue rein-
forcement of the means available for the inforcernent of
them.