The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC .JOURNALS

The Tories pretend to be great lovers of the Con-
stitution ; but they constantly discover, both by their
deeds and words, that they are attached, not to the
advantages of the Constitution, but to the abuses
which Reform has still left in it. When pushed hard
they declare themselves attached to the Reform Bill;
but they are every no and then allowing it to appear
that they consider the Reform Bill a great evil. Thus,
for instance, in the Times of yesterday, we are told
that " Democracy, inflamed and bloated up by a con-
fidence in its own strength, derived from a long series
of successful encroachments upon the institutions of
the monarchy within the last seven nears, has dreamed
of nothing but an entire overthrow of every obstacle
between itself and a republic." Let us pause to in-
quire what is meant by successful encroachments upon
the institutions of the Monarchy within the last seven
years ? All the reform , then, within the last seven
years are encroachments upon the institutions of the
Monarchy, and unconstitutional in their tendency
The old boroughmongering Parliament—the old cor-
upt corporations—were the beau-ideal of Monarchical
institutions. The reforms, as far as they have
gone, are evils in Tory eyes, and they are quite
consistent in opposing themselves to all further
Reform. " A stand has been made (quoth the
Times), indeed we may with truth say, a triumph
has been achieved by the legitimate, the constitutional,
and conservative principle of this country, more de-
cisive and extraordinary than the annals of this coun-
try had ever before cause to boast of." This suc-
cessful stand reminds us of Lord Eldon's account of
the advantages derived from the revolutionary war—
"we have gained all that we have not lost." The
abuses in Church and State being what is alone valu-
able in the eyes of the Tories, every successful stand
in favour of an abuse is a subject of, exultation. Ire-
land has been kept in a state of feverish agitation.
This is a glorious triumph She is still without Muni-
cipal Reform. How consolatory the idea ! If every
a.lvance in the way of reform within the last seven
yeas be an evil, to retrograde is necessarily a good.
The Tories, therefore, with perfect justice, account
the King of Hanover their chief; for in principle they
are identified with him. The King of Hanover con-
siders the constitutional reforms in Hanover within
the last seven years ruinous encroachments;
and having, as he thinks (though he may find
himself mistaken), the power, he does not scruple
to trample on the Constitution. The Tories, deeming
as they do the Reform Bill a mischievous encroach-
ment, must be as much inclined to repeal it as
King Ernest was inclined to destroy the Hanover Re-
form Bill ; but they may doubt the expediency of
attempting to give effect to their inclinations. Mr.
Hume was, therefore, quite justified in declaring yes-
terday at Brentford that " the Duke of Cumberland
has always been the head of the Tories, and they le-
joke in his support. His principles have always been
theirs, and he has endeavoured to carry them out by
the abolition of the liberties of the people of Hanover.
If you elect the two Tories who are our opponents,
you elect men who are opposed to reform, to civil and
religious liberty, to her Majesty's Government and to
her Majesty's principles. Elect them, and they will
carry out the- Duke of Cumberland's system in Eng-
land whenever they can." They cannot, we flatter
ourselves, carry out the Cumberland system in England;
but it is because they cannot that they do not make the
attempt. The principal of Toryism is to govern by fraud.
Virtual representation is what they admir!. The
nets constituencies are encroachments on the Tors
Constitution, which is most perfect whe:i there is no
independent suffrage, but a few poor and venal voters
to he purchased. The Reform Bill has added prodi-
giously to the difficulties of the Tories, by increasing
the expense of making the representation virtual. We
refer our readers for an illustration to a letter in an-
other coluam from " An Elector of the City of Nor-
wich," detailing the shameful acts of bribery which
have taken place in that borough. " Such (says the
writer) was the venality of a great portion of the elec-
tors, that many of them, having' taken large bribes,
sent the cash back with a reason, viz., they had
made a better price of themselves,' whilst others, less
honourable, have taken bribes from each party, some
su the tune of 30/., 40/., and I believe 501., without
making either a single or double return. Such was the
state of time poll at 3 o'clock that it was impossible to
say which party would win, but, to make sure, it la
confidently asserted that the last twelve votes which
turned the scale in favour of the Tories, they
purchased at 1,2001., making (from the best in-
formation) their election an expensive one, not
being less than 20,0001." Indeed, the report is, that
the last man polled by the Tories cost them the sum
of 1351. The Duke of Wellington generally receives
credit for a considerable share of common sense, and
we must therefore suppose his attachment to the sys-
tem of virtual representation to be yet as strong as
ever, when he enables the Marquis of Douro to spend
a fortune in the purchase of the venal freemen of
Norwich. This is paying a good deal for the
whistle. And, after all, the Tories may exclaim, like
King Pyrrhus, against their ruinous triumphs. The
Reform candidates seldom have recourse to bribery ;
for their principles are the unbiassed principles of the
people. But the Tories have to buy their way against
the people. Let us suppose that by successive elec-
tions they even at last come to reduce by purchase
the majority into an equality, they cannot then take
the government. There would still be a struggle to
come ; and that struggle would be to them tremen-
dously expensive. After all the open tyranny of
King Ernest of Hanover, brutal as it is, is hardly
more foolish than the system of defeating the object of
the Reform Bill by intimidation and corruption.—
Morning Chronicle.

The election for Middlesex comes on within 48
hours. Those who enjoyed the gratifying spectacle of
the nomination yesterday at Brentford, will have already
formed a pretty clear idea of the political feeling which
prevails throughout the county, and of the dismal pros-
pect which awaits Mr. Joseph Hume and Co., should
that feeling be honestly expressed by the free voice of
the electors. The cavalcade which accompanied
Messrs. Wood and Pownall to the hustings, the friends
who received them there, and those who returned
with them to town, was composed of hundreds of gen-
tlemen in carriages and on horseback—a fair sample of
the class, as to intelligence and station, whose senti-
ments it would be an honour to the first men in Eng-
land to speak from the floor of the House of Com-
mons. But miserable was the attendance upon the un-
gracious and pinching Joseph. Eminently mean and
scanty was his muster-roll. Even numbers failed this
vulgar arithmetician—failed him to such a degree, that
smutty fingers enough could not be found in all the
purlieus of Brentford to justify the Sheriff—(albeit
a Radical, and therefore a homogeneous spirit)—in
running the risk of a colourable declaration that
the " show of hands" was for Hume and Byng.
No, instead of the slightest symptom—whether
ocular or uproarious—of even rabble popularity on
behalf of pinch-gut and his poor time-worn de-
pendent, the whole air-built edifice of Hume
seemed to be as starved, desolate, and repulsive as his
own meagre and inhospitable spirit. The " show,"
therefore, being manifestly in favour of the Conserva-
tive candidates, it was at once declared to be so by the
returning officer, and a poll—that is, an appeal from
the people generally, to whatever strength he could
poke out for himself, by fair means or foul—was de-
manded on behalf of (no longer " Middlesex") Joseph.
We did learn, indeed, though without desiring to be-
lieve it, that a certain official personage was heard to
nuitter something tantamount to a wish that " the
h:i!lot had existed," inasmuch as, in that case, there
might have been some hope that the indication of the
show of hands would not be confirmed by the poll-books
—a curious passage, if authenticated, in the history of
a reformed Sheriff. What, however, does all this dis-
play—glittering, we acknowledge—animating and en-
conrag'llg, nobody can deny:--demonstrative of men's
inclinations there is no 2,rains3ying—what does it all
portend ? What does it promise? What is it worth
We answer, although it promises much, that without
being actively and energetically followed up, it is worth
just nothing. Nay, the more it undertakes for, the
less is its teal value, until it actually becomes a down-
: -11 insult to the whole Conservative spirit of the
nation, and a positive outrage upon all truth and
honesty, if the support thus tendered--if the pledges

thus recorded—if the hopes thus raised in the minds
of loyal men, and the fears thus stricken into the
heart of the Queen's enemies, be not fully and effec-
tually " carried out" (according to their own jargon),
and realized, on the part of the Middlesek freeholders,
by their strenuous and indefatigable efforts to give
Messrs. Wood and Pownall a large majority, and at
an early hour of each day's poll to return them for the
county by a manifestation of the public voice so em-
phatic and so general, as to save us for years to come
from all disturbance from the side of republicanism or
irreligion, and thus prove, that if Middlesex had not
been fortunate enough to show a good example to other
counties, she at least has decency enough to follow the
good example which a large majority of the most impor-
tant counties in the kingdom have long since set her.
We cannot conceal from our Conservative fellow-sub-
jects, that the sluggishness and inefficiency which have
been so conspicuous throughout the whole course of the
metropolitan elections, with the single and admirable
exception of Greenwich, have tended seriously to lower
the estimation of the Conservative principle, as though
it were one the duties prescribed by which could be sa-
tisfied at the cheap rate of words and professions, re-
quiring no test of manly sacrifice, or generous self-de-
nial. The vilest of mankind can boast of what they
are disposed to do, and it is one characteristic of the
utterly worthless to inspire expectations which they
never mean to fulfil. The electors of Westminster
_ _

and the boroughs have put those of the Metropolitan
County on their trial. If the latter fail to discharge
their obligations to the people of England, by keeping
their engag2ments to Messrs. Wood and Pownall,
which engagements have for their object to rescue
Middlesex from the grinding dominion of a low and
heartless usurper, those electors are guilty of the
grossest perfidy. What some of them will be most
severely touched by, they practise the most evident
impolicy against their own selfish interests, for let
them assure themselves that it is not on the cards for

the present Ministers by any possibility, with such
a Pailiament, as the present now must be, to carry
on the Government of the Empire for three months
after the ensuing Session shall hare been opened.
We say the thing is flatly and utterly impossible.
Where, then, we beg to ask—where are your trimmers

then ? Where, in such a case, are your corrupt or
pusillanimous falsifyers of the plighted word ? Where
are the grand hopes which they had been told by their
deceivers to indulge of Whig-O'Connell " patronage"
—of Whig-O'Connell " custom ?" Where is the
stability of Whig-O'Connell power, which alone
could give effect to the intimidation of voters, as the
penalty for keeping their words ? Why, all such things
are scattered to the winds of heaven, and nought re-
mains of those bland seductions or awful threatenings,

to either or both of which the nerveless and unprinci-
pled among this great constituency had yielded, but
a barren seed of conscious and unpaid rascality. We
say that a brief period may—ay, must—make good
this assertion of the transient tenure by virtue of

which the John Russell Cabinet still holds on to
office. We tell the electurs in Middlesex and else-.

where, that those who attempt to eorrupt them will
not in one case out of an hundred be able to complete
their bargain—that those who menace them with offi-
cial vengeance will, before many weeks have expired,
be able to realize their threats. We tell them that now,

as ever, " honesty is the best policy," and that treachery
is of all things the most thriftless.—Times.
The elections Still proceed prosperously, as will be
seen by reference to the exclusive intelligence in this
day's Morning Advertiser. At this late hour in the
morning it will he impossible to give a correct analysis
of the whole ad.litional gain to the popular cause,
which may justifiably be added to the result of the
careful summary which we laid before our readers yes-
terday. But three new triumphs may be specially re-
corded. We may in general terms assert that the
people continue not only to '' hold their own," but to
add new acquisitions to those which they have so per-
severingly, and honourably to themselves, obtained.
The Tory party have said, " Wait till the result of the
county elections be known." We reply—the Scotch
and Imieh elections are now beginning ; wait till their
results are known. We believe that an accession of
strength of more than 20 to the popular party, and
consequently to the popular Ministry which represent
it, may be fairly calculated upon in those two quarters
of the United Kingdom. It is not a mere barren
triumph which the people have obtained where-
ever they have won die victory ; but they
have established indisputably this fact—that the
rgence, the independence, the commercial in-
dust y and the property of the country, are decided!y
in their favour. Look to London and the metropolitan
districts ! Look to Manchester ! Look to Birming-
ham ! Look to Leeds ! Wherever commercial in-
dustry, commercial affluence, and commercial capital
constitute time chief ingredients of the constituency,
there the people are certain of a triumph. The great
commercial towns—the names of the richest bankers,
and the most eminent merchants arrayed on the side
of the people against Toryism, is an ample answer to
the noisy alarmists who bellow' their thrice defeated
sophistries on the subject of revolution and demo-
cracy. Wherever poverty prevails in a constituency
—wherever ignorance is the comate of political de-
pendence—there Toryism obtains an advantage—
there its corrupt influence comes into play—there
the mildewed seeds of bribery and intimidation are
enabled to produce their fatal harvest of political
mischief and social demoralization. We trust we shall
hear no more (after the disgusting exposure of bare-
faced corruption in all parts of the kingdom) of the
trite and faithless arguments put forward against the
necessity of the Ballot. The necessity of the Ballot
is fully proved by the necessity of freeing the country
from the effects of a flood of corruption, which, if
allowed to proceed, will convert it into a political swamp
of moral putrefaction. The necessity is proved by the
too-visible fact that the Queen's cause, and that of
the Ministry, would have been doubly strengthened if
Mr. Grote's motion (which all but passed the Com-
mons) had had the good fortune to have been conso-
lidated into a law. Instances of bribery of which we
have heard, and which are at once ludicrous and exe-
crable, might have been avoided. In Liverpool elec-
tors were made drunk overnight, and locked up, in
order to be secured from competition, and driven like a
herd of swine next morning to the hustings. In Hull,
so over-anxious was the cause of corruption, that
packets containing ten sovereigns were put by mistake
into the hands of many townsmen who were not elec-
tors. These things will at all events produce this
good—that they will bring every honourable opponent
of the Ballot to the conviction that nothing else will
save the character of the country from irredeemable
degradation, and the ark of liberty from irrecoverable
shipwreck. See what an ally the Ballot would have
been ! Were the Ballot superseded in France, said Mr.
Tocqueville, in the Committee on bribery at elections,
the Court and privileged influence would gain consi-
derably, and the popular influence would suffer pro-
portionately. Mr. Tocqueville's statement applies with
admonitory force to the present elections. It is clear
to us that the popular members returned would have
been greatly increased if the Ballot had frustrated the
machinations of Tory desperation by rendering cor-
ruption useless. We ask, are we right or mong in that
calculation ?.--Morning Advertiser.
The conduct of the Whig-Radicals in the elec-
tions exhibits, in a strong light, the hateful vice of fac-
tion. Faction is blind and stupid, headlong and ob-
stinate. It refuses to be taught by experience :it
mistakes words for things ; it sacrifices truth and ho-
nesty, equity and justice, to the gratification of a
wbipartiality for a sound or a colour. Upon
noonrierto the
ground could the party which entitles itself
the party of the Reformers have proceeded as it has
done within the last week. It was obvious that the
reformed House of Commons had disappointed the
country. It was obvious that neither in talent for
discussion, nor in tact for the dispatch of business, had
the reformed House shown any superiority over the
representatives chosen under a defective system ; yet no
notice seems to have been taken of that disappoint-
ment, nor any means resorted to of remedying- so pal-
pable an evil. We had al ways considered it
possible that the people, having the representation
in their own hands, might judge erroneously, and
retain occasionally to Parliament men who were
not the hest qualified for managing public interests
in the House of Commons ; but we had also con-
sidered it as nearly certain that the people would not