The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-29 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL

SUMMARY.

The Times of this morning, in the course of a. leading
article, in which our Contemporary denies that he ever,
" speaking for the Conservatives, held out the olive-
branch to the Whig Cabinet, or to any portion of it,"
makes the following remarks on Ministers:—" We have
pointed out to the public. rather than to the Whig Mulls-
ters, the insidious selfishiies,i of that portion of that mcinber
of the Daily Press, which, tinier the Dictatorship, acid
obviously in the interest of Lord Durb,,m, has for weeks
past been labouring to per-uade the Aleial Whigs that
their stabiiity as a Government depended on their deser-
tion of all their old Whig- princiFles and remembrances;
and on their iinmediate accession to that party of agitators
in the course of pr,)gre,,sive democracy of which the Noble
Lord has recently become the CAryphaetts. The motive
fir this attempt by the Radicals on the credulity of
the Whig Ministers, as we have alreddy stated, is
to assure themselves of partners in the approaching tiowaall,
of con,ederates, more or less active, in their future eff .t ts
as an Opposnion, to overturn the Conservative Guvvrit-
meta, and re-ascend to effico. It, trnce more, toe Whig
Ministers mak, love to thi, d,ception, it is their own look

out. Circunistai.ces have ecuirred, not necessary to
dwell upon, which would rather incline us to susle,ct that
the Whizs will ally play the gudoomi on this occasion,
and gulf down the semblance of Nlmisterl4l Atatoilts,
before them by the Recite:4 artist in ti c Durham Chronicle.
Our present hr lief is, that they Ain fist nibble, then bite,
and finish by being fairly hauled ashon., and feasted on by
their cannibal seducers. They say Lord John Russell
falters in his finality. They say, but we can hardly ims
gine, that the publication of the farewell address to Stroud,
which was advertised a fortnight ago, has been much
affected and retarded by the result, surely not unexpected,
of his Lordship's recent motion 1"
The Morning Post comments as follows on the diffe-
rences between Ministers and the Opposition, on the sub-
ject of the Jamaica measure What is, in effect, the
difference between Sir R. Peel and Lord John Russell
upon this question of the Jamaica Bill ? It is this—Sir
R. Peel desires to vindicate the authority of the Imperial
Parliament, but not, in the present state of circumstances,
to go beyond this. He wishes that a locus penitentia
should be left to the Colonial Legislature—that an oppor-
tunity should be afforded for making up the quarrel which
has taken place, without resorting to extremities. Those
remarkably ingenious and highly indignant personages, the
Whig Ministers of the Crown, wish to go further. They
desire to make the new measure not only vindicatory but
vindictive. They are resolved not only to maintain the supreme
authority of the Imperial Parliament, but to punish the Colo-
nial Legislature for its assumed misconduct, for annihilating
its existence for a considerable period. This is the difference
between Ministers and the Opposition. Weak people are
generally apt either to do nothing, or to attempt to do too
much. This is, we think, the condition of our Ministers.
In the Jamaica affair they attempt too much." Every one
can see with half an eye the motive of Sir R. Peel's op-
position to Lord John Russell on the Jamaica question. It
is a specious clap-trap—an attempt to gull the people into
a belief of Tory liberality. But it will not succeed. The
public mind is fully made up respecting the inherent nature
of Toryism, and knows right well that it is just as easy to
wash a Blackamoor white as to convert a genuine Tory into
a Liberal.
The Morning Chronicle, after exposing the inconsis-
tency of a series of leading articles that have appeared in
the Times, goes on to discuss the prospects of Toryism.
" The Tories," says our Contemporary, " know their own
weakness against the nation. Their consciousness of it
peeps out of every corner of their crooked course of argu-
ment. They' fly to the most opposite extremes of state-
ment and assertion, and still it is visible there. In vain
they attempt to hide it under the blustering of braggart
falsehood—the very extravagance indicates its presence.
They have but one chance, and they knew it. Their
venture is embodied in the bottom of Whig finality. They
watch it, and support it, and bepraise it, and cocker it up,
and adopt it, and in its pettish obstinacy they rejoice with
trembling. Finality is the only peg on which a Tory
hope can hang. Mans it will hold fast they must
let go, though the bottomless pit were below. Fur
their utter despondency of office it is only requisite
that a Reform Minister should rise in the House of Com-
eions, and give the nation distinct and trustworthy pledge
that Reform shall reassume its onward course, until all
political grievances are redressed. Such pledge is no more
than every patriot has sworn to his country in his heart ; it
is the baptismal vow of political integrity. The monstrous
evil of the finality doctrine is, that it not only destroys the
present Ministry, but cripples the future opposition. The
shifting of places will not cure the plague of disunion.
Various circumstances mark out the Ballot for the first
movement towards a better representation ; but as to re-
placing one finality by anoth•!r. the notion is preposterous.
The only proper finality for Reform is the redress of the
final grievance."
The Morning Herald, alluding to the Jamaica Bi'

says :—" Perhaps Lord Durham, whose government of
Canada was so efficient as to result in a second rebellion,
will accept of the Governorship of Jamaica, where, under
the Act suspendinc, the Constitution, he may really revel
in the delights of despotic sway, and make a rebellion, if he
does not find one. What might not be expected in the
way of picturesque confusion from Durham frippery vanity,
broiling in a West Indian climate, and inflated with
Sultanic power ! The heated imagination which the
snows of Canada could neither quench nor cool, would
surely set the cane plantations on fire in a country scorching
under Durham's temper, and a tropical sun. Our abhor-
rence of slavery, black or white—of slavery with its African
bondsmen, or its British captives, of the Whig Bastiles—
is, or ought to be, well-known to the people of Englaad.
But the land-owners of Jamaica have rights as well as
their labourers : and while W 0 rejoice at the emancipation
of the latter, we cannot, at least without a stronger case
than Government has yet attempted to establish, consent
that the former should be reduced to the condition of po-
litical outcasts."