The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Derby Meeting was treated in this jour-
nal in a way which, to use a homely expression,
" will place the- saddle upon the right horSe,"
with respect to the presumed agricultural difficul-
ties of that county ; and we have no doubt but
the Chairman, Mr. Chandos Pole, Sir Roger
Gresley, Sir Henry Fitzherbert, rc. &c., begin
to find their own distresses less urgent, and are
preparing to grant ample re;ief to their tenants,
who, in their two, find employment
and adequate pay for their labourers. The meet-
ing at Chester, which %vas a county meeting, was
of a more extensive and important character,
and its result was yet more remarkable ; for not
only were resolutions embodying the foolish
fancies of political economists on the paper cur-
rency simplified into something like good sense
by the petition adopted, but also a manly decla-
ration of Lord Delamere, " that there was only
one remedy for the agricultural distress, and

that was a reduction of rents." This declaration,
we say, from Lord Delatnere was•received with
one of those tremendous bursts of applause
which at once indicate the truth of the senti-
ment, and the sincere conviction of those who
hear it. Let this, then, be the standard doc-
trine and principle of the day,—that on the part
of the people, there is only one remedy for the
agricultural distress—viz., the reduction of rents ;
and on the part of Government, but one—eco-
nomy. Let these two remedies be applied, and
in six months we shall hear no more of distress'
of any kind.—Times.
A l•.!tter from a correspondent signing " H.
T." is pressed upon us for insertion, and if the
apologist of Mr. Western promises himself that
the Member for Essex will be much the better
for this exposition of his case, why let him make
what lie can of it. Our imputation of motives
to Mr. Westeen went no further than might be
inferred from our tiew of the consequences to
which his apparent wishes tended. The positive
complaints of the Hon. Gentleman, when
coupled with his vague (we admit) though
vehement indications of remedy, could have no
meaning but this one, that too many of the
comforts of life were to be had for money
formed of the precious metals, and therefore that
a species of money should be resorted to, of
which a larger nominal amount would be re-
quired t:) procure an equal portion of such ar-
ticles. Neither Mr. Western nor his advocate,
if they be different persons, will deny, we take
for granted, that such is the whole gist of the
'lon. Gentleman's dissatisfaction. Yet the
apologist of the Essex landholder cJiarges us
with unfairness, for ascribing as the motive of
the paper-money schcme, a wish to serve the
interests of one class at the expence of the rest
of the community. Why, what other intelligible
motive can actuate the persevering solicitor for
paper-money ? We know well enough, and so
do all men who can judge from past experience,
that the 'Squires are mistaken,—that they are
guilty of a gross blunder, in conceiving that
the substitution of a paper for a golden cur-
... . .

renev would benefit them, while it injured
all tim rest of the community. But
it is no argument against their enter-
framing such a hope to say that in the contem-
Ogzion of men who are not squires, such a hope
is utterly fallacious. If Mr. Western does not
Inean the: a paper currency should be substi-
tuted for a metallic, let bin: explain the following
I,assage, quoted by his advocate from his own
address to the landowners in the year 1822, and
quotcd as a refutation of our statement, that
f.tiiy. Western did, in fact, propose the return to

pver-curieney:—" I shall not, I hope,"
wi•ltes J,i;.e Member for Essex, "be considered
the advok4e of an unlimited paper-currency.
There must bo some standard or measure by
vvhieh it may be tried, and at which it must be
coirvatible into the precious metals; but com-

112011 sense .anti justice point out the necessity of
rendering such measure conformable to that by
which we borrowed," Very well; but what was
,k6t standard ? lies it not, on Mr. Western's
sown §howing, the double perfection of being a
imeasurst at once depreciatei and impracticable?
WestQrp. says, that " in 1813 and 1814, a
period during which we borrowed upwards of
100,000,000 E. •the price of gold rose to
and 4s. ; when, therefore, our
r.,a,eer was made convertible. into gold at
N. *7s. 101 d. per ounce, it is clear that
iipward; ,of 20 per cost. was added to the
value of rite eight contracted in those two years."
i'sTew what is Mes Western's project, but to bring
back gold to a higher ‘nominal) value per ounce,
2ild to lezalize en issue of 11. notes by the
iliankem? The 'ariter of the letter before us
..reposes that the standard of value ehoi.ld be
tip ad (according tow plan attributed to oh Lord
Liverpool) by the average price of gold for a
certain number of years, Tbtoi what was to be
the stand A by which gold itself should be mea-
s:
sured ?—itilver standard ? Yes; for all ;clue
is relative, and there is no way of measuring
one precious metal but by another ; and does
Mr. Western mean t.o say, that merely by
peaking the word an Englia,s; Parliament could
forte a certain amount of gold to pass for a
certain amount of silver, differing from the pro-
portions which the two metals bore actually to
feAch other in the several markets of the world ?
The law might gay an ounce of gold shall lie
worth an hundred standard shillings, instead of
seventy-three shillings and 7,01 d., just as that
wise lawgiver Mr. Nicholas Vansittart made 21
paper shillings (by law) equal to a ste.nf'sard
guinea, But what would Mr. Charles Western
gain by vietch a vote, any more than was effected
by Mr. Isikholas Vansittart ? Would the act-
of-Parliarnent-wvereign purchase in the one ease
more silver than it vas really worth in tile several
exchanges and marketis e,,f the world ? Or did
the Vansittart Bank-note buy more gold, fur all
the hocus-pocus of the House of C.e;,mnons re-
volution ? But Mr. Western may rejoi:n:,--
" Oh, it is not five poiiods of silver that I would
make the measure of the golden ounce, it is five
pounds of paper !" Is it, indeedyeand pray
what paper—by whom issued—and uncle.. what
restraints as to quantity ? If you will not have
silver for the measure of gold,—..and we have
proved that you cannot have it, but according
to the proportions which the two metals really
bear to each other in exchange, a proportion
with which ir. Western might as well propose
to tamper by " act of Parliament," as with the
changes of the " silver =on" herself,—if, we
say, you will not have the convertibility of gold
into silver, how, in the name of heaven, or on
what principles, can you regulate its .corevertibi-
bility into paper, orT the conversion of paper into
gold ? Unless paper is made convertible into so-
vereigns, and according to the known standard of
31. 17s. laid. per ounce, the precious mecalssre at
cnce banished, and the fita:ldard of the currency
debased. Then, with respect to a limit upon the
issues of paper: that also, of course, Airs Wes-
tern would regulate by an act of the collective
wisdom of Parliament. He "paid have the

Bank-books produced, no doubt, and referred
to a Committee, who should sit in judgment on
the greater or less issues of the Bank ! Ay,
a blessed judgment we might look for at
the hands of a committee of 'squires ! That
rents might be infinite, why Bank-notes must be
voted infinite, and glorious days would come fen
tile agricultural interest i'fackens. Let the cur-
rency alone, Air. Western : it is too heavy for
you. Lower your rents, and relieve your far-
mers ;—assign an acre of ground to each cot-
tiger's habitatin, and withdraw him from the
de-hcuse and the workhowe, and raise him and

ids family in the scale of independent beings,
and make them ashamed of parish sustenance,
:Ind so lighten the burden of the poor rates, de-
ucing a financial from a political and moral
good. Do these things, Mr. Western, and you
ne.A not cudgel your own brains or the public
patience about projects which have nothing on
earth to do with the real substance of that great
national question, namely—how best to promote
the well-being of the poor of England.—/bid.
Mr. Charles Pearson's suggestion that the
Corporation of London ought to make good the
losses sustained by individuals through the frauds,
the negligence, or connivance of Coal-meters ap-
nointed by that body might with great propriety
he extended to much higher offices and depart-
ments than those connected with the coal trade.
The system of coal-meterage, as it is for the
most part practiced in London and Westminster,
riot only affords no sort of safeguard or security
to the consumers of this expensive necessary of
life, but is itself one main source of fraud ; for it
disarms suspicion, and tends to enhance the price
while it lessons the quantity. Who, then, are
benefitted by this system but those who enjoy
the ill-gotten gains on the one hand, and the
ill applied patronage on the other, If the civic
or any other body appoint persons to iluties
which they do not perform, and thereby occa-
sion losses to the public, who so fit to make good
those losses as the party who make the appoint-
ment ? We have said that the principle is ap-
plicable to other and higher departments ; by
which we mean those various offices in the State

that are filled by persons receiving high salaries
and emoluments for supposed responsibilities
and duties of supervision, which they either
never at all, or at the most very superficially,
perform. We never instance the office of Trea-
surer of the Navy, and the various frauds which
have been from time to time committed
upon the country by persons holding
subordinate places in that department. Every
one must remember the ludicrous, and some-
what too candid account which the late Mr.
Tierney gave of the onerous nature of the du-
ties which he had to execute when he held the
office—duties which he frankly confessed to con-
sist of nothing, or very little more, than signing
the receipts Ear each quarter's salary ! The
Master of the Mint, too—judging from his re-
sidence elsewhere, and the recent robbery of that
department—is one of those well-paid public
servants whose duties have hitherto been very
little more than of the quarterly kind described
by Mr. Tierney. Indeed we are told that among
the intended objects of retrenchment which the
Duke of Wellington has in view is the abolition
of this latter office. The abolition of offices
which are useless is certainly very proper; but
e think it would be a better thing for the coun-
try if principals were made responsible, as well
for the active discharge of their own duties, as
for the integrity and attention of those who hold
office under them. It is desirable, we think,
that persons of rank and talent should become
acquainted with the details of public business ; but
that is not to be obtained by allowing what ought
to be places of active responsibility, to become
sinecures nor is the public interest ever likely
to be consulted by deputies, who take the tone
of carelessness and indifference from principals
who work only on quarter day.—Morn. Herald.
We have much pleasure in stating that his

Majesty has completely recovered from the slight
attack of cold which confined him to his apart-
ments during the late severe weather. His Royal
Highness the Duke of Cumberland has, for the
last few days, been indisposed, and unable to
leave hi& residence at Kew, in consequence of a
rather severe attack of rheumatism. We are
happy to add, however, that his Royal High-
ness is much better, and is expected to come to
town on Wednesday next, in order to attend to
his duties in Parliament. The resignation of
Lord Mountcharles, as <me of the Lords of the
Treasury, has originated in the reluctance of the
Noble Lord to identify himself with the mea-
sures of the Duke of -Wellington, and v,e are
empowered to state that it has been tendered
with the cordial approbation of his Majesty.
Parliament is not expected to prolong its si.tings
much hceon:.l the month of March. It is even said

• .
chatcsscouas the intitiny bill is passed the session
will be closed by a dissolution, followed by a new
Parliament, which will assemble in the month of
M 4 y, It is untrue that the King has consented to
the cler;.:tp!,) of Prince Leopold to the throne Of
Greece. The proposition will be submitted to
Parliament, but no definite arrangements are

expected to be entered upon for some consider..
able time. The rumours Ivllich have been put
into circulation with respect to the intention of
his Peoyalighness the Duke of Cumberland
to leave this fur the Continent are unfounded.
His Royal Highness will remain in England
during the Session of Parliament, and in the
course of the year, or rather towards the end of
summer, he should deem it necessary to visit
i3eitlin, it will only be for a few weeks, in order
to break up the ps;ablishment which he has in
that city. Prince George, we understand, will
tot leave England, but will remain at Kew.—
The reported junction of the Marquis of Chan!,
dos with the I:ee4nt Ministers has excited con-
siderable surprise and no hula speculation among
two distinct elassed of persons, both of whoa)
may be, or rather may have been, considered the
poj.:tic4l friends of the Noble Lord. We allude
to the Frote.-;;;;.nt party and the West India
body. The forme(' ens.der that the repeated
pledges of Lord Chandos were th.enied a OM-
i2llt paran'ee that he would form ro connexion
with a Ca! yet whose conduct on a late occa-
sion.7,.was so repoo,nant to his avowed feelings
and principles. The latter Mate that Lord
Chandoa was placed at the head of the We;t:
India /I..sociation pn the ground of his avowed
principles and acknowledged independence; and
they further assert that the treatment which this
body has exper;(4lced at the hands of the Duke
of Wellington should have prevented the Noble.
Marquis: from becoming a member of his Go
vernment. But let us explain more fully what
we me,an„ it is well known that the Duke of
Wellington, if fr.: (lid not promise in formal
terms, did at least intimatt hie intention to re-
duce the duty on West India sugars to the ex-
tent of t,..-apty or twenty-five per cent. This oc-
curred several months ago. At the last inter-
view, however, his Grace fie;:lind the reduction,
ta which the associated repeated, and which they

understood had been promised by the Premier.
In these circumstances, if the Marquis of Chan-
dos had been animated by a sense of feeling for
the interests of his constituents, he would have
hesitated before he compromised himself by
accepting office. For, after all, it is nothing
else than a compromise. It is impossible the
Noble Marquis can serve the West India
eroprietors so well shackled by office as he
might do as an independent senator. Besides,
he knows that the party at present in power,
and particularly the Peel party, if that can
be called a party which is composed of a
few stray sectarians, are inimical to the
colonial system. The cares of office must
supersede the cares of his constituents.—
He cannot oppose the Wellington policy, no
matter how injurious that may be to the pro-
prietors and planters of the West Indies, and we
naturally conclude that if he be appointed to the
Mint he must resign his Chairmanship of the
Colonial Club. But with regard to the Pro-
testant party we cannot think the Noble Marquis
can have already forgotten his repeated pledges.
He knows to what we allude, and he also knows
whom we point to as the parties to whom he
made these pledges under peculiar circumstances.
But we drop the matter for the present till we
see the result.—Morning Journal.
Nothing now with the Tories but Parliamen-
tary Reform. This is a new era, indeed. " We
believe (sap
,the:striiKked of last night) few
propositions werernothitesented to the count
commanding so complete an unanigunpk„.
ward approbation, at least, as the's4ool§.!
formation of the Commons House OfPiiiiiiibent.
Every publication with the slightest pretension to.
either talent or independence, from the Quarterly
Review and BlacS-woods Magazine downward,
contends for that change, which is also the uni-
versal desideratum in all private conversations
connected with politics, in circles of all ranks."
Bravo, Gentlemen. But, indeed, it is nothing new
for Tories in opposition to become Reformers.
Swift, after the accession of the Hanover
Family, warmly advocated Parliamentary Re-
form ; and hence we suppose SirTrancis Burdett,
when he submitted his motions for Reform in
the House, called himself a Tory of the reign
of Queen Anne. If we are ',tiee:,believe the
Standard, the Tories will be great":gainers by
Reform. But we will allow our contemporary
to speak for himself:—
" As far as the Tory party are conceited, there is
withing surprising in this; they are, Pi truth, the
representatives of the popular feeling, is they have
always proved themselves the guardians of the
popular rights. Whatever the people gain is
gained by the Tory party ; they will, there-
fore, but assert their own interests in extending
the popular interests. We know that same
delusion exists upon this subject; a few words,
however, will dissipate it. It is hastily supposed,
that because the question of Parliamentary Reform
has been chiefly in the hands of Whigs and Jacobins,
and the vernacular rabble of towns, that it is to such
only it would prove advantageous—that it would
give us, in fact, a constitution of Pat liement scarcely
better than what we Lave (worse it could not in-
flict), and fill St. Stephen's Chapel with a congeries
of Burdetts, llobbouses, Wilsons, and Humes, to
the exclusion of such valuable Representatives of
the People as the Member for 'Westbury. Now the
very reverse of this would be the case. Any plan of
Reform which should proportion the right of repre-
sentation to the property of the represented, or to the
numbers of the represented, or to a scale com-
pounded of both, would return at least three-fourths
good Tories to Parliament. The town population
of Great Britain—excluding villages and those very
small towns where the habits of the people are
essentially agricultural—the town population of
Greet Britain does not exceed three millions, or a
fifth of the whole; take this away, and you have
four-fifths of the electors agricultural, or so closely
connected with agriculture, as to be perfectly iden-
tified in interests with the English, that is the Tory
party. It is so far a question in arithmetic; but we
feel that in giving up the town population we give
up a great deal too much. We are persuaded that
it is the want of a Parliamentary Reform which has
given to such places as Westminster the disgrace of
Representatives like Sir Francis Burdett and his
colleague. In the first place, these adventurers have
found the grievance of imperfect representetion,
bearing, as it does hear, with peculiar hardship upon
Westminster, a chonuni vacans,' and they have
availed themselves of it ; but what other ques-
tion could have lifted Sir Francis Burdett or
Mr. Hobheuse into notice ? Or even with that
question, can it be supposed that any rea-
sonably small district of Westminster should have
returned either of them in preference to an honest
and respectable competitor in the same district ?
The truth is, that in a place like Westminster,
where the franchise is distributed among very many
thousands, the value of the vote is diluted to nothing
—men regard it as a plaything merely, and, for the
sske of the fortnight's amusement, will freely bestow
it upon the Jack-pudding Lkely to afford the most
sport. Cut Westminster, however, into half-a-dozen
districts, give its electors a definite political value in
their votes, and they will bestow them more warily.
Still it is right that the lowest canaille should be
represented ; and therefore that there should be Bur-
detts, and Hobhouses, and Wilson; but if they are
to be admitted, we ought to have something better
than Westbury-men or Armagli•men (alas! for Ar-
magh) to keep them in order.
" If we have succeeded in showing that Parlia-
mentary Reform must be advantageous to the Tory
party, we have shown also why we ought to re-
gard with considerable suspicion the professed sup-
port of the Whigs and Radicals. The first are no-
thing if not Boroughmougers—the second lose all
their interest in the question when it ceases to be
their exclusive property. The Whigs took it up,
upon the confession of one of their own body, Mr.
heeat;se it wets that best of grievances
which admitted of no redress, and might be there-
fore traded on, as they thought, for ever. The
Radicals adopted the proposition merely as a mea-
sure of disguised jacobinism, which, did they suc-
ceed, would lead to the subversion of the Monarchy,
as during the last ten years of the eighteenth cen-
tury, or the first fifteen of the nineteenth, it pro-
bebly would have done."
Let us pause a little. So then the Tories
harp a deep interest in carrying l'arliamentary
Reform ! This suggests a question. Who
plunged the country into the war with France ?
Who voted for the bankruptcy of 1727, and,
consequently, for the depreciation which fol-
lowed ? Who loaded the country with the
burdens wilifJ4 now weigh us down to the earth ?
The Tories, to be sure. Why they must have
done all this to disgust the nation with Parliae
'Dent, in order to obtain that reform from which
they are to gain so much. They knew that an
Englishman's head is always soonest reached
through his pocket, and that, without draining
him, lie might have consented to rub on with
Parliement as at present constituted. What
(Leo clogs the Tories roust be ! We were before
unable to understand how they should become
so suddenly alive to the imbecility of the repree
sentatives of the people. We never though:
very highly of the wisdom of Parliament ;
but we could not see any greater degree
of folly or meanness in the men of the present
day than in the men of former days. They who
voted that a pound note and a shilling were equal
in value to a guinea, at a tinge IP:lieu it .vi4s
known that twenty-eight shillings could be ob-

tallied for a guinea anywhere, seemed to us to
have as good a claim to the palm for folly and
baseness as any men that ever sat in St. Stephen's
Chapel. But then we were not in the secret.
We did not dream that this was a deep scheme
to dispossess:: the Whigs of their boroughs,
which, without a heavy national debt, they would
have contrived to retain, and to give the Tories
an opportunity of proving their identification
with the people. They consented to play the
fools in appearance, in order that they might
bring Parliament into disrepute. And yet we
have a strong suspicion that the Tories them-
selves were not so long-sighted as our contem-
porary would have us to infer they were. We
are inclined to think that they owe their present
wisdom to their former folly. It is a saying in
America, that no Englishman can have an insight
into business in that country, till he have lost all
his money, The sensitiveness of the Tories
to the blunders of Parliament commenced with
the fall of rents. If the currency were but
depreciated 50 per cent. rents would be
paid ; and the estates which, at present,
cannot be sold, because the price would be swal-
lowed up by the mortgagee, might then find
purchasers. No matter what happen afterwards,
provided the needy 'Squires obtain a little mo-
ney. But we are to have a Reform in Parlia- '
ment first : that is fixed. A reformed Parlia-
ment would, of course, insist on the currency
being again depreciated, with a view to turn the
bles on the fundholders, and creditors in
•
ge-
iteral. The moneyed men live in towns, and
`.fey
will be beaten by the 'Squires and their de-
pendents. " A Reform in Parliament would
savejhe Monarchy, and the Church, and the
;Country, from urgent peril." Good Heavens !
who would have thought that the Bishops and
Farmers throughout the country should unite in
demanding Parliamentary Reform, in order that
the former may have the pleasure of continuing
to receive tithes, and the latter the pleasure of
continuing to pay them ; for, to save the Church,
means to save the tithes, to save pluralities, to
save to Bishops the privilege of portioning off
their daughters with the livings in their gift, and
to starve curates ?—Morning Chronicle.