The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-02 00:00:00

start back with horror, from this mountain and this viaduct, I
before ? How comes it to pass, that they now, for the first
time, have found ont that the country which the railway
traverses, is thinly peopled, and so destitute of remune-
rative commerce ? We will tell them how it was. It
did not suit their convenience and their pockets to conjure
up these obstacles before : and it does suit their conve-
venience, and it may be some of their pockets, now, to
make the most of their mountain, and their viaduct, and
their tunnel, and accordingly they come to the meeting
with their mouth-piece well charged, and in the excitement
produced by their imaginary fears, would have fain shat-
tered the project altogether."
In supporting the views of the inhabitants of Man-
chester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and other
great commercial towns, in favour of the establishment
of local Railways, we never imagined that in any of
them such a spirit of mean commercial jealousy existed
as is here manifested. We took it for granted that
merchants were too enlightened not to know that an
attempt to isolate such a great manufacturing town
as Sheffield would only tend to ruin trade else-
where by an influx of unemployed mechanics—that
the principle of fair play was the only one upon which
trade could flourish in any country. But we now find
that the people of Manchester would be monopolists
if they could—that to raise the market for themselves
they would starve thousands of the industrious inha-
bitants of Sheffield. This selfish, monopolising spirit
must be crushed. The principle of speedy conveyance
once established, the people of Sheffield have as much
right to a Railway as the people of any other manu-
facturing town in the kingdom. From the first pro-
posal to establish a Railway in this country was made,
we uniformly supported the principle ; and having
never had the smallest pecuniary interest in any of the
lines proposed or established, we assume for our-
, selves the right of being considered strictly impar-
tial. Now we condemn, as narrow-minded, sel-
fish, and unjust, the opposition at present
offered, to the laying down of the line of Railway
between Sheffield and Manchester ; and we sin-
cerely trust, for the sake of the characters of those
taking part in it, that the scheme will not be further
persevered in. Having failed in their attempt to de•
feat the object of the meeting of shareholders last
week—namely, to carry into effect that provision of
the Act of Parliament which fixes the appointment of
a certain number of Directors within a period of six
mouths—we trust they will henceforth decline a course
of opposition which must terminate in their own
defeat, with no other satisfaction but the malignant
one of having increased the trouble and expense of
the Company. The Slifffichl Independeat gives the
following as a correct list of the Directors appointed
by the meeting, in pursuance of the provision of the
Sheffield and Manchester Railway Act :

" Lord Wharncliffc and Messrs. T. Blake, Sheffield ; J.
Bennett, Manchester ; W. Butcher, Sheffield ; J. Dalton,
Hallgrcen ; M. Ellison and T. Laycock, Sheffield ; T.
Ellison, Glossop : Jas. Rhodes, Tintwistle ; W. Smith and
Thos. Smith, Sheffield ; Thomas, Joe, W., and James
Sidebotham ; and J. Sykes, Sheffield."

Though the policy of the ConsCtueonalists in Por-
tugal, and particularly that part of it which has re-
ference to England, is liable to objection, it is faultless
when compared with the conduct of the other party, or
with that of some Englishmen, who, in supporting
them, seem to regard themselves as the only real advo-
cates of British interests in that country. To the un-
wise policy, indeed, of the latter class, may be attri-
buted much of the jealousy which exists among a
considerable portion of the Portuguese people against
the British Government. They have done everything
possible to irritate the predominant party. After
many prophecies which remain to be fulfilled,
after denouncing the Constitution, the Government—
nay, the representatives of the people—and all in vain,
they at last think they have gained a great victory and
triumph, because there is some delay in the formation
of an Administration. This only shows to what a
shift the Chartist party is reduced. Disappointed in
every attempt to outwit their opponents, and defeated
in every contest, civil and military, their only conso-
lation seems to arise from the fact—that there is some
delay in settling the line of policy which, since their
late complete discomfiture, it maybe necessary to pursue.
But what proof is this, either of the badness of the
cause, or of the unsuitableness of the Constitution to
the wants and wishes of the great body of the people ?
In this country, and under an old established Consti-
tutional Government, we have heard of delays so pro-
tracted, that the Representatives of the people were
forced to interfere, and call on the SOVEREIGN to
form an efficient Administration. The Chartist King,
LOUIS PHILIPPE, during his short reign, has had
at least 20 different Administrations, with an inter-
regnum between some of them of as many
days ; and if Sir ROBERT PEEL, in 1834,
had delayed the formation of his Administration till
he could find men of business, or men who had the
slightest chance of conducting public affairs success-
fully, we verily believe it would not have been formed
at all. And can it, therefore, excite any surprise that
there should be some difficulty in adjusting the frame-
work of a Cabinet in a country where the SOVEREIGN,
the Coutt, the Nobles, and most of the representatives
of foreign States are hostile to the existing state of
things? The time during which the dominant party,
under such circumstances, has been able to carry on
the Government, is a proof that they have the great
body of the people with them, and they can well
afford to the Chartists and their partizans their tempo-
rary rejoicings at the present delay. There never,
surely, were a set of men who had less cause to rejoice.
With the assistance of the Court they tried, by a coup-de-
main on the capital, to overturn the Constitution. They
miserably failed. Counting, then, upon the more loyal
feelings (as their phrase is) of the people in ,the
country, they raised the standard of rebellion at Tho-
mar ; but finding the loyal feelings there too obtuse,
they retired to the hot-bed of loyalty in the north, ex-
pecting that they would be joined by the adherents of
kingly power in Braga, Chaves, and Braganza ; but
there, too, they were miserably disappointed, and their
army, on the first encounter with the Constitutionalists
was literally annihilated. They do not, however,
only injure themselves, but also those who, for
the good of the country, ought to stand well with the
people. Before the Constitution was proclaimed the
Court, probably not without reason, was liable to strong
suspicions of a desire to revert to the old system of
government, or rather misgovernment, such as it was
under King JOHN ; and the two last ill-contrived, and
ill-executed plans to overturn the Constitutional party,
have reduced these suspicions to a certainty. It will
be some time now before any sincere friend to Portu-
guese liberty can look to that quarter without suspicion.
But this country is also involved. We do not
enter into the merits of the Constitution. It may
be good, or it may be bad. With that we have nothing
to do; and our Government, whether Whig or Tory,
have, ever since the promulgation of the Charter, pro-
fessed the strictest neutrality. Yet certain partisans of
the British Government, by their eternal gabble about
British interests, and the madness of the Clubs, and
the impracticability of the Constitution, and their
volunteering their services in defence of Lord
H OWARD DE WALDEN, lead the Portuguese people
to believe that he is at the bottom of all the mischief;
and that a Whig Ambassador is as ardent in putting
down Constitutions not to his taste as was the Tory
Ambassador Sir WILLIAM A'CourtT, who destroyed
every Constitution he could find in his way from Sicily
to Portugal. Who can wonder that the jealousy of
theaPortuguese is excited ? Such conduct is not the
way to support British interests ; and we confidently