The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of th• PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(FROM THR HORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.)

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
A pleasant view of the condition and prospects of
the Tory party may be gathered from an article en-
titled " British Policy," in the just-published num-
ber of the Quarterly Review. The article might as
appropriately have been headed " Tory Policy ;" for
although in form, and perhaps original purpose, it
he an attack upon Ministers, chiefly in relation to
Canada, it is really a complaint of the course pur-
sued by those who, through the late Session, directed
the movements of the Opposition. It is discovered
that the right method for upsetting the Government
was not adopted. There is grumbling, if not mutiny, in
the camp. The faction is ill at ease ; its aspiring volun-
teers want their commissions ; and the Swiss crave
Letter pay or ampler plunder. The writer laments like
a modern Jeremiah, and seems disposed to throw Sir
Robert Peel overboard like another Jonas. Ac-
cording to his statement, the party is in the jaws
of a crisis, and there is no hope but in a different system
ef Parliamentary tactics :—" The danger is imminent,
and it is useless to conceal that, unless the friends of
good government, the protectors of life and property,
without delay act upon fixed principle rather than on
!heir late fluctuating policy, we shall inevitably be ruined
i:f.yond human relief." But the critic should be rea-
sonable enough to expound what is to be done, if the
vat), have no " fixed principle" to act upon. He should
sow what possible ground, in the whole region of de-
ilned political principle, there is on which the Tory
leaders can take their stand, without alienating a portion
or their supporters. The regiment is recruited from
every sinister interest, and any one great political
principle would send whole companies to the right-
alrout. And then how absurd to require this sort of
ine tal consistency of Sir Robert Peel, who never

et could keep a single principle fixed through-
the
i len‘,:th of a single speech ? The case is desperate.
If fixing principles be the only resource, the critic may
make up his mind that the fiction must " inevitably be
ruined beyond human relief." It is unfortunate that a
Quarterly Review takes so long a time to pass through
the pr: ss. If Toryism has anything like a fixed prin.
eiple, it is that of coercion. The writer seems to have
had this in his mind. He would have had his party
back, to save the country by another Manchester mas-
sacre. As a climax to the mischiefs of the Whig Go-
vernaient, he awfully announces that a " National Con-
' vention is already formed ; pikes, pistols, and muskets
i;) considerable numbers have already been amassed ;"
and he asks "is not this revolution?" Unfortunately
/ for his eloquent italics, while compositors and pressmen
were tlran,;ing through their work, the Convention is
already dissolv ad, the pikes and pistols already pawned or
given up, and the revolution has quietly evaporated, un-
der the influence of a wise and merciful policy, the com-
plete reverse of that which might have been apprehended
troin Tory councils. What a wicked revolution, not
to wait till the Reviewer's argument had at least enjoyed
a week of triumph ! The Chartist " revolution" being
defunct, one principal reason for a change of Tory po-
:icy, such a change (bless the mark !) as should place
.the party in power, has vanished. Another remains,
, less interesting to the public, but nearly affecting the
p.,rty He assures us, that its members cut a
very ridiculous figure during the last session. They
1 were under too strict a discipline, and their genius was
cramped thereby most abominable. His picture of his
s comrades has humour in it;—

" We repeat, therefore, our opinion, that during the
AG sess;,on the discipline of the Conservatives bas been
too ciosely maintained ; they waited for orders which it
was not deemed prudent to promulgate, and thus, instead
• a firing their muskets independent.y wherever they got a
glimpse of their irregular enemies, they patiently and in
,nUch silence stood before them to the very end of the
,es inn with ordered arms.'

" ' The Earl of Chatham, with his sword drawn,
, '• Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan—
. Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em,
Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham l'"
We question whether the Tory leader will like this
F ,irapoon upon his tactics well enough to laugh at it.
:submit to the laugh of his followers he most ; and this
• one of the many intimationa which mast sometimes
1 Ake Sir Robert Peel feel the degradation of his posi-
: In. He has none of the respect and confidence that
should belong to a statesman leading a Parliamentary
~.trty. It is not long since that the Times rated him
bound ly for his adhegion to the New Poor -laws
la and
1 demanded, in an insulting manner, whether any- one man
i 1 the country thought te more favourably of thats
;
law 1 iii consequence of his approval? The implied nega-
tive is doubtless the correct answer. But, than, it
i cto only be the answer in relation to the tool of a
)' party ; its nominal leader, but its real slave. Amongst
the Tories themselves there is evidently no dia..
i position to consider Sir Robert Peel as anything Aicore i
4 o,ln a clever convenience. He is not their political
i' ,a dc. They have neither faith in his principles nor I
respect for his intellect. Hitherto his great recommen.
dation bas been the shrewdness of his parliamentary
tactics. In a connection simply cemented ,by that bond,
there is nothing very honourable to either: gut now
!
his skill as a tactician is questioned and denounced.
According to the Quarterly Review, he has beef& the
misleader of the Tories, They would have fought het■
ter, it seems, without drilling; and might have won the
tjhattle had they not waited for the word of command.
:iap_stijd be unfair to withhold the Reviewer's recipe for
;,i5c..!. of Tory discomfiture. He has mapped out an
4:4titivi,
_.. _,th to glory. The way to success is, he says,
iv.t, Lir ,getting into a scrape :
,oTipet(loo)ple of England are, we know, not only ready, i
• :;?` .. f'.•::: 5- ' '

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