The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

We have gained Mr. Gibson Craig for Sir George
Clerk in the county of Edinburgh, and lost Mr. Hume
for Mr. Wood in the county of Middlesex. We
cannot dissemble the mortification we feel at the defeat
of so old and deserving a servant of the public as Mr.
Hume by a youth whose claims are not known to the
electors of Middlesex, though the Times assures us
they are appreciated at Almack's and Crockford's.
Mr. Hume stated at Charing-cross yesterday, that
" the Tories had beaten the Reformers, not by the
honest and free votes of the electors within the county,
but by the out-voters, and by the necessarily enormous
expense attendant upon the bringing up of that class of
the constituency. He was ashamed of the city of Lon-
don upon this occasion ;it had not done its duty. It
was a most serious thing for the Reformers to know
that in a stand-up fight—he would not, indeed
he dare not, call it a fair one—they had been
beaten by the Tories. The cause was obvious :
the Tories had been active, industrious, and well
organized. On the other hand, the Reformers had
been apathetic, indolent, and self-confiding." Mr.
Hume concluded by declaring with much emphasis,
" I have been beaten in Middlesex ; but the Tories
have miscalculated. I can assure them they shan't
get rid of me." Many a man less steady in character,
and of less determined principles, would have been so
far affected by the disgraceful apathy of the Middlesex
Reformers as to have abandoned as hopeless the idea
of benefitting the public. But Mr. Huine has not
suffered himself for a moment to be driven from his
course. With a manliness of spirit which cannot be
too much admired, he tells the Tories that, though
they have gained a triumph in Middlesex, they shall
not triumph over him—that they have lost their
labour if they imagine that by defeating him in Middle-
sex they can get rid of him. 'Whoever dedicates him-
self to the service of the public should, like Mr. Hume,
be prepared for much ingratitude ; for we are sorry
to say the principles of the great mass of man-
kind set very loose on them. In times of great ex-
citement the people will discharge their duty as good
citizens : but in ordinary times the " money power,"
to borrow a phrase from the Times, will be found
more than a match for political conviction. During
the present election the victims of the Tories have been
victims of the " money power," of influence and inti-
midation. In all the great towns, where voters could
not be purchased, and intimidation could only be exer-
cised to a limited extent, the Tories have been beaten.
-They have been beaten in all the metropolitan bo-
roughs, in Edinburgh, in Manchester, in Glasgow,
Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Leicester, Durham,
&c. In cases where they have been successful they
owed this result to the venal voters, the growth of the
state of things which preceded the Reform Bill. The
pauper freemen of Liverpool, Hull, and Norwich
swamped the respectable electors. In the counties,
with few exceptions, the people are not at liberty to act
on their political convictions. The Parsons feel that
the abuses of the Church as well as abuses in the
State are threatened by a Liberal Government, and
they have every where made common cause with the
Tories. A large proportion of the Magistracy every-
where, and in some Counties the whole Ma-
gistracy, are opposed to Reform. The elector finds
himself beset whichever way he turns, and filially
abandons the very idea of struggling for his princi-
ples. We are satisfied, however, that in Middlesex,
notwithstanding the hostile influences to which 'NC have
been alluding, the Reformers might have been suc-
cessful with 'Clue diligence. The county was very im-
perfectly canvassed. In proof of this assertion, a gen-
tleman, who had yesterday delivered over to him a
list of eighteen names in a particular district, found,
after labouring with assiduity the whole day, that all
of them had either voted for Messrs. Bvng and Hume
the day before, were decided Tories, or were dead.
From the list which he left with us, and the remarks
made on it, it is clear to ns that the Reformers were
utterly without organization, and were altogether
in the dark with regard to the strength of par-
ties in extensive districts. A matter like this
ought not to have been delayed to the last day.
But, after all, when the Tories cast up their
accounts, they will find themselves far from the
result desired by them. Ministers will not gain
such an accession to their former majority as we could
wish them to have, hut they will still gain consider-
ably more in Ireland and Scotland, than will cempen-
sate for their losses in English counties. The Tories
dare not insult Ireland, by refusing to place the breve
inhabitants of that country on a rooting of equality
with regard to municipal rights with the people of
England and Scotland. They may impede Ministers ;
but they arc themselves as far from power as ever.
The sense of the people, as manifested wherever public
opinion can manifest itself, sufficiently indicates that
though they have a majority of the squires and the
parsons with them, the respectable middle classes arc
against them. If, emboldened by their victories in
some of the counties, they yield to the suggestions of
the Cumberland-Hanoverian party, they may find the
next election less smooth than the present.—Morning
Chronicle.

Mr. Joseph Hume has been rejected by the free-
holders of Middlesex. The county is no ylonger dis-
graced by a man whose knowledge of its interests is
precisely equal to his acquaintance with the wants and
interests or the nation at large—a man eminently de-
void of all fixed and definite views of statesmanship,
that is, of the science of legislation and civil govern-
ment—a man who has no faculty of perception as to
the merits of any political measure beyond its mere
arithmetical bearings—a man profuse of vulgar speech
but of all else a ni7gard—a man who set up in bwi-
ness a 3 a demagogue, with no capital but that of an
uneducated, reckless, and malignant partisan of change
—a man who understood the English character so
little as to pay court to it by virtually denying the su-
perintendent providence of the Almighty. This
nuisance has, thank Heaven I been abated. This in-
cubus has been shaken off' the neck of the Metropo-
litan County, and we have in his room a gentleman
of manly and liberal dispositions, of Conserve•iVe
principles—of independent fortune—of ancient and
honourable family, whose name, if not, in a bad setts
so notorious as that of Mr. Joseph flume, will at
least not bring the county into disreputd, as pander-
ing to the hollow and impudent pretensions of
the most worthless of adventurers. The total defeat
of Mr. Joseph Hume in Middlesex, we hope, is the
harbinger of another overthrow, namely—that of Mr.
Daniel O'Connell, who, by the last accounts was
writhing under the hourly growth of Messrs. 'West
and Hamilton's majority in the election for the city of
Dublin. The said Daniel seems, indeed, to enjoy a
mighty uncomfortable prospect—a prospect of which
the desolation is in no small degree enhanced for him
by the consequences of his insolent and rancorous at-
tack on Mr. Ruthven. About the hour yesterday
when the poll for Middlesex was closing, Joseph
Hume exhibited himself, mounted, as our informants
say, on the roof of a hackney-coach, and began de-
claiming upon the frightful results to be apprehended
from his rejection by the freeholders. " It is not for
myself I cite," cries Joseph, " but for the fatal blow
struck at the cause of reform in this country."
Then came a tremendous storm of wind and rain,
which soon reduced the numbers of the patriot's
audience to the same degree at which stands
his own generous solicitude for " Reform"—viz.,
that point called Zero. The orator, however, having
gesticulated his five minutes " upon the coach," and
Cato-like, having assured the hydrophobic rabble that
" he wept, not for himself, but for his country," we
may count on seeing Daniel, within the next two or
three days, weep, not for the indignity offered to him-
self, but for the " fatal blow struck" against " justice
to Ireland" by the return of Messsrs. Hamilton and
West. Having alluded to the attack of Mr. Daniel
O'Connell on Mr. Ruthven, we now refer our readers
to the rejoinder published by the latter gentleman
against his black-hearted persecutor, and we entreat to
it•their earnest attention. Mind, that O'Connell be-
gan the war. No otherwise provoked than by the
refusal of Ruthven to acquiesce in a job of the Agi-
tator's, who, having sold himself for an extravagant
price to Lord Mulgrave, was anxions to buy Ruthven
at a small price, and to turn both him and his seat
for Kildare County to his own profit with the Mul-
grave Government, Daniel bursts out upon him
with a .letter which we have already glanced at,

and in which he taunts Mr. Ruthren with his personal
misdemeanours upon the turf, as w ell as with the
difficulties arising out of such transactions to the ac-
complishment of the Agitator's virtuous and benevo-
lent intentions in his favour, whereby his application
to ctbtain for him a Colonial Governrient was defeated.
But Mr. Ruthven likewise prosemtes his revenge
upon O'Connell, and shows eff the intriguing, bro-
kering spirit of that impostor, as well as his blustering
tyranny, in a lively and striking strain. He reproaches
the Agitator broadly with his eagerness to buy and
sell the representation of Kildare—to buy it of him
(Ruthven), and to sell it to Lord Mulgrave, whose
creature and toad-eater, Lord Cloncurry, had a son
likely to be of age in a few months, and would there-
fore give Ruthvcn 1,0001. to be his warming-pan,
while O'Connell himself was to procure for this same
man, whom he has since accused of the most shame-
less villanies, a snug Colonial-office. In this letter,
moreover, O'Connell's assiduity in feathering the nests
of all his connections at the public cost, as he has done
his own at the cost of the starving peasantry, is
very forcibly depicted. «%e recornmend the letter,
because it appears to have done wonders upon the
constituency of the Irish capital, Ruthven having pla-
carded it upon every wall, ascribes to its exposure of
O'Connell's baseness, and that of his ignominious ally,
the Irish Government, the steady success which the
Conservative candidates have already achieved in the
course of this election, and the certain declension of
the O'Connell power. We trust that the rest of Ire-
land may put forth an honesty and energy equal to
that which the Dublin Conservatives have begun their
work, and that the example of constitutional and en-
lighted England may direct them to the confusion of
popish knavery and democratic violence. The Eng-
lish counties arc behaving admirably ; to offer them a
word of needless counsel would be to insult them.—
Times.

The Middlesex election is over, and has terminated
to our disappointment and dissatisfaction. A sense-
less Tory has been returned instead of a sound Libe-
ral, and the county in consequence completely stultified.
It is true that the Tories have not conquered to the
extent to which they anticipated, inasmuch as Mr.
Byng, the Reformer, is at the head of the poll by a
majority of more than two hunched and fifty votes—
but we frankly own at the same time that we deem the
county to have most shamefully and infamously dis-
graced itself, by returning even one Tory second on the
poll, in preference to a man, the whole of whose politi-
cal life has been dedicated to the service of the people.
With whom the fault of this most mischievous result
rests we shall not at present stop to delineate. There
must have been great blame in more than one quarter.
There was sufficient Reform strength in the county, as
is clearly proved by Mr. Byng's majority over the
Tory, to have returned both Hurne and Byng ; and
that- they were not both returned at the head of the
poll can only be ascribed, not to the absence or dete-
rioration of Reform principles, but to the stupidity, on
the one hand, of a great number of electors, who thought
that by plumping for Byng they were doing their best
to destroy the Tory, while their second vote would have •
been equally efficient for Mr. Hume ; and, on the other,
to gross parsimony in regard to matters connected with
the election, where a just liberality would have been
the best economy. However, the matter is now over.
A Tory occupies the place of a Liberal, and Middle-
sex, as well as the cause of Reform, is to a great ex-
tent disgraced. But let not the Tories boast too much
of their triumph. They have a conquest in one county,
and we frankly give them credit for all the misrepresen-
tation, intimidation, and corruption, of which they
have availed themselves in order to accomplish it. But
if they dream for a moment that, because they have
(mined a county, they have thereby given a heavy blow
and discouragement to the cause of Reform, they are
most miserably mistaken. The spirit of Reform is
abroad throughout every part of the empire, and the
Tories may as hell attempt to stem the ocean's tide as
to arrest it in its progress. The numbers on the Tory
and Liberal side in the ensuing Parliament may be as
nearly balanced as in that which has been dissol-red.
The Melbourne Administration may by the force of
circumstances, the possibility of which we can scarcely
imagine, be superseded by another of a less reforming
character; hut be that administration what it may.
Toryism cannot even for one week form any portion of
its policy. Reform must be the motto inscribed upon
its banner, and Reform principles the source from
which it must draw its existence.—Morn. Advertiser.
Sir .Francis Birdett was justified formerly in de-
manding the ballot, by the scenes of brutal violence
which took place at elections. To protect from inti-
midation was then the ground of his advocacy. His
partizans in North Wiltshire have fully justified the
same necessity now. We call the reader's attention to
the proceedings there. More disgraceful scenes of
brutal violence were never exhibited at any election on
any former occasion. In our opinion the High Sheriff
would have been fully justified in adjourning the pro-
ceedings. They bore the character rather of the
French reign of terror than of an English nomination.
Tile unarmed friends of the Reform Candidates, ac-
cording to the report, were charged by the Burdett
horse in a most unmanly and savage manlier. His
mounted cavaliers were armed with stout sticks, and,
without any sort of provocation, they began to hit away
right and left, and to spur their horses forward till they
had driven the discomfited foot (the Reform voters)
entirely off the field. Severe wounds on the head and
face were given on both sides, till the Burdett ban-
ners were captured and destroyed, and the poles were
converted into weapons of defence against the assaults
of the Baronet's horse. Finally, Lord Shelburne
was wounded, and with difficulty saved from the vio-
lence of the body-guard of this superannuated Mark
Anthony. Comment is barely necessary on these dis-
gusting and atrocious proceedings. There are a class
of aggressions which are so outrageous and so infamous
that they arc beyond the censure of words. The pro-
ceedings of the North "Wiltshire nomination, under the
influence and eye of Sir Francis Burdett, were of this
character. In the words of his famous " bloody Nero"
letter—we ask, "Is this England ? Is this a
Christian country—a land of freedom ? What
attack men unarmed ? Will the gentlemen of Eng-
land.support or wink at such proceedings ? Surely
they will at length awake to demand justice and redress,
and to put a stop in its commencement to a reign of
terror." Sir Francis Burdett began his political career
in the character and with the phraseology of the chief
of the reign of terror, Robespierre. It would appear
that the circle is come round, and that he is returned to
his vomit. He is still a Cataline in heart as he was at
first ; but he is now a Tory Cataline, instead of being as
he was when he disgusted the friends of liberty by his
violence, the Cataline of Home Tooke and Republi-
canism. H. may still be addressed in the language
that Cicero employed to a turbulent and arrogant de-
magogue—" Punctum temporis quo loquor, defende
si poles cur me tue satellites cum gladiis audiunt ?
Cur Ityrceos deducis in forum? Prcesidii sua causa ?
Nonne igitur middies perire est melius quam in sua
civitate sine armatorum prcesidio non posse vivere ?"
What can this prince of turncoats say in vindication
of himself ? How could he reply to the charge of
tergiversation substantiated against him by Mr. Mild-
may, in proposing a staunch Reformer, who has never
deserted the colours under which Sir Francis once ranged
himself ? " In former days," said he, " he recollected a
Sir Francis Burdett, who was the friend of the ballot,
universal suffrage, and annual Parliaments. Let any
elector ask him if he wasfriendly to them now ? Informer
days he looked with admiration upon the man, he
could now only regard him with feelings of compassion
and pity." These were words which, if the renegade
Baronet was any thing but a shadow of his former self,
ought to have stung him to the heart. But he is not
the Sir Francis Burdett. He is a mere caput mor-
tuum ; a body without brains or heart—sunk into that
state of degradation which is the lowest of all—that
which does not enable a man to see his own humilia-
tion. Pity for fallen human nature every man must
feel. But so determined does this apostate appear to
produce a reaction against himself among his former
friends and admirers, that he is not satisfied with
exciting pity.
gt
i o hiss
thirst for notorietyWheilseeegrmsataifmy f superannuatedbeing
hated,
as well as of being despised. Danton once said, " I
am myself a revolution." Of Sir Francis Burdett it
may be said, 44 lie himself is a political- abuse, He ,