The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Many of our readers will have little tEfficulty in
recognising in the masterly communication " on the
Ballet," under the signature of " No Tenant at Will,"
inserted in this day's Chronicle, the " Quiet Looker-
on," to whom they have been more than once in-
debted for essays on the same question, and others of
deep political interest, characterised by the grasp of
mind and fairness of argument for which this writer's
productions are so eminently distinguished. It W:l3
hoped by Earl Grey and Lord John Russell, when
the Reform Bill was first proposed to Parliament, that
the extension of the franchise would raise the enfrans '
chised classes in their own estimation, and give to the
higher classes a strong motive for so co ducting them-
selves as to merit the esteem and regard of those on
uhom they would be dependent for their influence.
211 as! the good which the Bill may have effected in
li it respect - has been but as a drop in the ocean
ecmpared with the evil occasioned by the bad
feelings everywhere engendered by the attempts
:( overawe and intimidate voters, of which it has
been productive. The middle classes have been
exposed under this Bill to an amount of suffering
which has too frequently led them to curse the
day it passed. Our correspondent, than whom no man
has better opportunities of knowing the sentiments of
the middle classes in many parts of the country, does
not hesitate to declare, that " the Bill has notoriously
been, to a very late extent, a wretched failure," and
that " the first triumphant exultation about it has
long since passed away." This is strong language ;
but we have too much reason for affirming that it will
be echoed by thousands upon thousands throughout
the country. The Ballot, as a remedy for the insuf-
ferable evil of intimidation and the punishment of
voters for the conscientious exercise of their right of
euffrage, will be found effective. In some instances it
may screen corruption, and it is not altogether free
from objection ; but on the whole the good so predo
minates over the evil, that it is now generally assumed
~..•
no one Who really has at heart the putting a stop to
the coercion of voters is opposed to the Ballot. All
legislation is tentative or experimental ; and it can he
no reproach to Earl Grey and the other authors of the
Reform Bill, that they did not at once produce a mea-
sure which should work without inconvenience. The
idea of any measure being final, is irreconcileable,
in fact, with all sound legislative notions ; for what
is the use of a Legislature, if recognised evils be
excluded from its consideration. When, there-
fore, the host of evils springing out of the exposure of
voters to the vengeance of those who seek to coerce
them is fairly placed before any upright Statesman, we
cannot help thinking that he will 'honestly endeavour
to discover a remedy. There is no great question on
which the people are so unanimous as on the Ballot.
• They laugh to scorn all the arguments which have
hitherto been urged against the measure in either
House of Parliament. Their minds are too English
to allow them for a moment to listen to the objection
that the Ballot is un-English. In short, to the plain,
unsophisticated minds of the middle classes, it appears
that the arguments of the opponents of the Ballot are
mere subterfuges, advanced by men whose real grounds
of dislike to it are founded on a persuasion that the
people ought only in appearance to possess the right
of voting for their Representatives. And we cordially
hope ere long to see Earl Grey, the father of the Re-
form Bill, among the most prominent supporters of a
measure essential to preserve its integrity and.to secure
its blessings, which are now endangered by the bad
uses to which the Tories have perverted its provisions,
and which certainly never were in his Lordship's con-
templation when he endeavoured to give effect to the
principles with which his political life had been iden-
tified.--Morning Chronicle.
One of the Ministerial Papers attempted last night
a defence of the Whig-O'Connell compact. We have
looked with some curiosity for an exhibition of whole-
hoggism on this subject, and we look for it still. The
small talk of Cupid could hardly be supposed, even by
those who gave that " little all," to be worth much in
such a matter. When Boswell told Johnson that he
had been to a Quaker's meeting, and heard a woman
preach, Johnson said, " Sir, a woman preaching is
like a dog walking on his hind legs ; it is not well done,
but you are surprised that it is done at all." So we
say of this Ministerial attempt to defend the Whigs for
so slavishly kissing the hand of O'Connell within a few
weeks after he had kicked them so hard. It is apropos
to a passage which we yesterday quoted from the
Journal des Debats that our Ministerial contemporary
breaks silence. And how ? Why, smarting under a
severe chastisement which the Journal des Debats, a
few days since, administered to this Ponderous-Levity
print, it quotes from the National some flippant obser-
vetions which are intended to disparage the Journaldes
Debats. We need hardly remind our readers that the
National is a savage republican paper, which is chiefly
known to Englishmen by its constant and wanton display
of the bitterest malignity to this country and to all ite
institutions, expressed in language coarser, perhaps,
than any that is applied to us, except by the Carlist and
Ultra-Papist Gazette de France, from which Cupid
will doubtless take his next quotation. This comes of
being connected with the Foreign-office. We cannot
be surprised that the Republican and the Protestant-
exterminating prints of France are in favour with the
intruments of a Ministry who are wholly dependent
on O'Connell's patronage, and who have declared that
they desire to give " a heavy blow and a great discou-
ragement to Protestantism" here. If, however, we
are to deal seriously with what this print puts forth in
lieu of argument on this subject, we have little to do
but to state the stuff. It runs thus :—" Instead of
imposing his general views as conditions of supporting
the Ministry, O'Connell expressly postpones tho.cc
views to the present neces.citq of supporting an Mini-
nistration disposed to do jugtice to Ireland." This
means, of course, that O'Connell postpones, not his
views, but the realization, or the attempt to realize
them. He has, however, no " general views ;" this
is a phrase stigested by the daily dishonest practice of
the shuffling Whigs and their (if possible) less scru-
pious satellites. O'Connell's views are not general,
but specific ; and so clearly described that no one can
misunderstand them. And what are those views? Why,
principally, the destruction of the Protestant Church
in Ireland, and the disinemlherment of the empire.
With the full knowledge, because with the plainest
and fullest declaration of this fact, published under
O'Connell's. own need, the Ministers treat with
O'Connell for his support of them on all other mat-
ters, and his putting off these for the present. Now, were
the destruction of the Protestant Church and the Re-
peal of the Union questions upon which the Cabinet
vre:c divided—matters upon which any great difference
of opinion existed in political parties—this understand-
ing between the Ministers and O'Connell would not,
politically, wear the base complexion it now assumes.
But we publish to-day, very appropriately for our
argument, a letter of Mr. Encas Macdonnell, in
‘s hich the fixed determination of the Whigs to re-
sist the Repeal of the Union is recorded in not -eery
flattering language to O'Connell. We m.,ght adduce
other passages much stronger—such as the declara-
tions of Lord Althorp and of Lord Ebringtou, that
they would prefer civil war to the dismemberment of
the empire, upon wnich O'Connell insists, as an
ultimate measure it is true, but a measure un-
doubtedly '9 be consum.:nated sooner or later. Equally
stro.og have been the declarations of the Whigs
agc.ati4t the complete annihilation of the .Protestant
Clinrch in Ireland, though they have no objection
to give it " a heavy blow and great discouragement,"
like cowardly rogues, who, with every disposition to
commit a burglary if they dared, content them-
selves with breaking a window and running away.
Do such people, bad as they are, act consistently in
paying O'Connell for " postponing his views ?" Sup-
pose a man were to say to a gang of notorious burglars,
" The house I live in is pleasant and profitable,
but it is very •uncertain how long I shall hold it,
for I am tenant only at the will of my landlord ; you
tell me you mean to break into it and steal : pray
postpone your views till my tenancy expires, and then
do what you like. In the meantime here's money
for you--it is the bird in hand, you have still the
bird in the bush when we go." Would this be
IVeetthipett in the tenant ? But the tenant in this case
/ "7- ------exicehepresents the Whigs ; the house represents
Ae - tha-rratiou' , the nation's honour, and the nation's wel-
re ' fares-4Eile the burglars are Daniel O'Connell and
fi