The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-05 00:00:00

tyranny was perpetrated—Jos EPH Hum E never shrunk
from the Parliamentary exposure of the one and the

other—never ceased to expose them, till the evils he

complained of were redressed.
But shall we despair of our country—of the glorious
triumph of Reform principles—because one of the most
honest of the late Representatives of the people has,
through the shameful mismanagement of his friends,
and the apathy of a section of the liberal electors,
failed to be returned for Middlesex ? GOD forbid !
We are as sanguine respecting the triumph of
the liberal cause as ever we were. It is the
cause of truth, of progressive civilization, and must
prevail. In the meantime it is but just that we should
denounce every act by which the triumph of Reform
is retarded, whether committed by a hollow friend or
an open enemy. The Reformers of Middlesex are
greatly to blame—they have suffered an indelible stain
to be cast on their political character; and yet we do
not hold their conduct in half the abhorrence we do
the mismanagement, the apathy, the blundering blind-
ness, and ignorant presumption of Mr. HUNIE'S Com-
mittee. A pack of more lumbering unbusiness-like
thick-skulls than the majority of that Committee
could hardly be selected from among the same class of
persons in England. The Chairman, Mr. WARBUR.,
TON, is a gentleman of another stamp ; but unluckily
he could not give his constant attendance—otherwise,
despite of every opposition, Mr. HusrE would have
been returned. We dare not trust ourselves to give
utterance to all we feel upon this part of this very mor-
tifying subject. It is shameful—it is maddening to
reflect that, had HusrE's Committee done their duty ;
had the Members, instead .-of talking, and brawling,
and boasting of their individual influence, only ad-
dressed themselves like sober-minded Reformers to the
proper business of the election, the contest would have
terminated in the triumph of the Radical candidate.
The smallness of WOOD'S majority at the close of the
poll quite establishes this fact.
HUME'S defeat in Middlesex will not exclude him
for an hour from the House of Commons, if he choose
to offer himself for any vacant constituency in the
three kingdoms. His public services have been too
numerous and important to admit of their just appre•
ciation being confined to the electors of one district ; so
that wherever he present himself, he will find
his name as familiar in the mouths of the people, as is
the contour of his countenance to the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER. His influence in the House,
resting, as it does, on his integrity and usefulness as a
legislator and an economist, will suffer no diminution—
will undergo no change—whether he represent the
argest or the smallest constituency in the kingdom.

Having put on the Tory livery—which, by the bye,
fits him to a nicety—Sir FRANCIS BURDETT thinks
it incumbent on him to adopt all the hacknied, hypo-
critical phraseology of the party ; and accorlingly in
his speech from the hustings the other day, he runL,
the changes upon " our glorious Constitution"—

" our unriyalled institutions," &c., with a tact
and glib readiness that convinces us he must have
been graduating in a Tory school long before
he formally proclaimed himself a pupil. His apos-
tacy is not of yesterday's growth, but dates
from the period when he found O'CONNELL engross-
ing a larger share of public attention than himself.
He was never a Radical Reformer from conviction, but
from impulse. Gratified self-conceit was the secret
of all his liberality, as disappointed self-conceit now is
of all his intolerance. Could he have become as no-
torious by adhering to the good cause, as he has be-
come by turning traitor to it, he would never have
dreamed of ratting ; but vanity has been the rock on
which he has split—the altar on N‘ bleb he has un-
grixd6ugly 046redup reputation—principle—candour—
consistency—in short, everything that man holds most
dear.

It must have been a trying moment to the Hon.
Baronet when Sir JOHN flonHousE, the best friend
of his best years, appeared foremost among his oppo-
nents on the hustings. One, remember, was the
>•pupil of the other. Together, for many years, they
had fought the sacred fight of liberty ; together they
had suffered ; together they had triumphed ;—yet the
pupil was now compelled to repudiate his master ; and
to confess that he had been as much deceived in him,
as was the rest of the community, who were wont to
hold it as the main article of their creed, that the sun
would sooner change its course, than Sir FRANCIS
BURDETT quit the broad highway of freedom for the
crooked bye-paths of Toryism.
Such being the man's apostacy, are we bound to
hold terms with him ? Are we bound to speak of him
with compassionate regret, who speaks of us with un-
mitigated and immitigable detestation ? Not so. The
measure he metes out to others, shall be meted out to
him in return. If he holds no terms with the people,
neither will they hold terms with him. He is an
apostate of the deepest die, with nothing but the
veriest dotage to recommend him. Let him plead
guilty to this, and we are satisfied. But then
comes the question—is a drivelling dotard the fittest
man to represent North Wiits ? Choose him, and
what should prevent East Cumberland from choosing
Sir JAMES GRAM AM ? Men of Wilts, do not—as you
possess self-respect and common honesty—permit
yourselves to be duped or bullied by Tory finesse, or
Tory menace. Look your position boldly in the face.
Think what the country expects from you—think
what you owe to yourselves, and to those who shall
come after you. If Sir FRANCIS BURDETT is con-
fessedly incompetent—we quote his own words—to re-
present Westminster, is he competent to represent you ?.
Are you such a mere fraternity of thick-headed clod-
hoppers, that you must, perforce, put up with the Re-
jected of another constituency ? Have you not the
same enlightened desire for 'R.eform as the men of West-
minster ? Fling back this insult, then, at the head of
the traitor who has dared to offer it ; and read him this
great moral lesson—of which he seems to stand sadly in
need—that no man, however high may be his station,
can sin against the first principles of political honesty
with impunity !
We are perfectly aware of the efforts which the
Burdettites are making in every district of the county.
That where they cannot convince, they bully ; and
where bullying is of no avail, they bribe. We know
that Carlton Club money is circulating throughout the
length and breadth of North Wilts; that expert Tory
electioneerers are on the spot ; that bludgeons are in
active requisition, and brick-bats at a premium. At a
c
farm-house near Devizes, the other day, a oal ;
skuttle fetched the high price of twenty guineas
and an old-fashioned tea-cup, with the ban..
purchased by a zealous an-
dle broken off, was
tiquary—Tory, of course—for the preposterous sum of
ten pounds ! These are the means to which the sup-
porters of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT have recourse, by
way of convincing the North Wilts Constituency that
the arch-traitor is worthy to represent their Division
But let them try their best. Let them bribe, bully,
humbug,eit_iii,
y asntdpromise, to the utmost extent of their
eapa
we tell them, they shall fail. The men
of Wiltshire feel that they have a sacred duty to per-
form—an important lesson to inculcate ; and knowing
this—feeling this—they will scorn to listen to the
1" voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely."

We have not words to express our admiration of
the Electors of Scotland in the present momentous
struggle. Even their enemies, for we call the Tories
the enemies of all independent electors, cannot refuse