The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Sir Culling Eardley Smith has addressed, through
the Hertford Reformer, a letter to Lord John
Russell, on the subject of the universality of the cor-
mption of the electors of Pontefract. No person has
been returned for that borough for the last 40 years
who has not paid head-money ; and the worthy Baro-
net is ready to give the particulars, supported by do-
cuments, " if required to do so, and protected in
doing so." Englishmen have so long been accustomed
to think lightly of bribery, especially in the old bo-
roughs, that we fear it will be some time before the
improved moral sense of the people will ,cork a re-
medy for the evil. Even in the times of the Com-
monwealth, when there was at least a general affecta-
tion of piety, Richard Baxter, in his" Holy Common-
wealth," states that so low was the moral sense of our
countrymen, that the man who gave most ale could make
sure of his election. The evil, from what we learn, so far
from being on the decrease, is spreading. In several bo-
roughs, where till within these few years bribery was
hardly known, it is now universal. The saying is
that when a man has once drawn blood he is irre-
claimable. .An attempt was made at Norwich to

expel a man from a Baptist congregation for bribery ;
but that was rather because he had taken three several
bribes than because he had been bribed. There is a

sort of honour in this respect both among the high
and low receivers of bribes. We heard an attorney
lately compliment the Scotch members of Committees
of the House of Commons as being so far honourable
that they took money only from one side, whereas
several English Members had taken money from both
sides. However that may be, bribery in boroughs is
unquestionably deemed as venial by those who receive
as by those who pay the money ; and such is the
feeling, that no understanding on the part of candidates
of different parties can avail. The attempt is in-
stantly resented, and at three or four hours' notice
new candidates will be started. If incendiaries had

been discovered setting fire to Sudbury, the indigna

tion would not have been greater than it was at the

attempt to enter Parliament at the last election for
that place without the usual bribery.—Morning
Chronicle.

" And in the lowest depth, a lower still." Tha.
Prince of political apostates, the ex-Member for West.
minster has been regularly and rapidly descending
in the scale of degradation for the last three years.
We admit that we were among those who thought
that lower he could not sink himself in the mire of
political pollution than he did when, after shrink-
ing a few months since from facing the Westminster
electors, under the pretext of being physically in-
capacitated for any future public service, he smug-
gled himself into Parliament through the vassals of
the Tory landlords of North Wiltshire. Lower
than this, we repeat, we did not conceive it possible
for the aged renegade to descend in the downward
scale. In this we were, as the event has proved, griev-
ously mistaken. The despised and rejected of West-
minster—for it was the absolute certainty of his rejection
that made him shrink from appearing before his former
constituents—has been exhibiting as the lion of a great
Tory guzzle at Devizes. Lower than this we hold it
impossible for the apostate Baronet to descend. In
this ditch we are willing to leave him—there let him
live, and there, as a politician, let him by all means die.
If it had been possible for any of his former friends
to have entertained for him, up to this moment, not-
withstanding all his manifold sins against the people
and " his former self," one lingering feeling of respect,
that feeling must now be extinguished for ever. Were
it only that the hoary-headed recreant had proved by
his recent conduct that he had degenerated into a state
of second childhood, and that all his exhibitions had
been purely puerile—then we would have simply re-
garded him with the compassion due to mental imbe-
cility under any circumstances, but especially due to it
in the case of one who had, like Sir Francis Bur-
dett, in his better days, proved a benefactor to his
country. But amidst all the childishness of the
ex-Member for Westminster there is mixed up such
a (1,-gree of virulence towards the party with whom
lie formerly acted, that our feelings of pity for the
nilieppy man are merged in emotions of a very different
Lind. There is a well-known proverb, to the efil-et,
I,at if certain men get rope enough they will—our
eaders can supply the omission. The renegade Ba-
°net has had rope enough, and has strikingly verified
the rroverb. Hes he no friend oo earth to prevent his
continuing his despicable performances by a seasonable
interposition on his behalf ? It appears not. To what
an ignoble state " may we not come at last, Horatio ?"
But while nothing can extenuate the conduct of the
quondam representative of Westminster in the course
he is now pursuing, it is satisfactory to reflect that he
is materially promoting, by his antics, the very cause
lie is labouring to destroy. His open and bitter hos-
til;ty to that cause, backed, as he is, by the miserable
faction with whom he is now associated, must of ne-
cessity have the effect of inducing the friends of those
principles he now maligns with an acrimony which
none but an apostate could display, to unite more
closely together, and to make a yet greater demonstra-
tion of their strength than they have ever done before.
The old driveller is lost to all shame. He has no more
of it in his bosom than that " Royal Stud," respect-
Yhidi lie ieflicted a prosy epistle the other day on
Lord Melbourne. If the !-a led patriot of Westminster
had the .lightest remains of sensibility left, how deeply
must he have been stung with remorse when he read
on the banners which were exhibited on this festive
occasion such inscriptions as the following--" Bur-
dett, the tried friend of the people"—" Britain's pride
and the people's man," &c. Was there ever mockery
more complete? Was there ever sarcasm more se-
vere? But the poor old renegade felt it not : he has
not a. particle of susceptibility left in his bosom.—
Morning Advertiser.
Great as is the plunder which the " Liberalism" of
Spain has made out of the credulity of England, it is
probable it would he by this time much greater than it
is, if it were not for the warnings which we have given
the British public for several years past, more especially
since the commencement of the war of succession, to
take care of their pockets, and closely guard their con-
tents from the rapacious fingers of the " liberal bor-
rowers" of Spain. Liberal, indeed, are they in bor-
rowing—but paying is an illiberal practice, which such
patriots are too high-minded to patronise—as not only
the British bondholders, but the unfortunate Palmer-
stonian Legionaries, for whom Evans obtained neither
gold nor glory, have discovered. We hope there will
not be wanting some Conservative of the requisite energy
and determination, in the forthcoming Session of the
new Parliament, to bring the case of those deluded vic-
tims of the Whig quadruple alliance and non-intervention
war properly under the notice of Parliament, not only to
obtain for the defrauded subjects of the British Crown
the redress and justice which they cannot obtain else-
where, but to put the stamp of legislative reprobation
upon the disgraceful practice which our Government
has pursued of inducing men to hire themselves out
to slaughter people with whom England is not at war,
and then allowing them to be cheated of their stipu-
lated pay and thrown upon our shores, maimed and
crippled, in the condition of outcasts and vagabonds,
to rob or starve. As to the present financial state of
Spain, he expose' lately made of it in the Cortes by
the Minister Pio Pita, shows it to be in a most des-
perate condition. According to our Madrid corres-
pondent, " the Minister stated that the deficit on the
31st July last amounted to the enormous sum of 1,447
millions of reals, or nearly 15 millions sterling ! What
is very remarkable in the case is this fact that the
deficiency on the 9th of September, 1836, was little
more than one third of the sum, or 461 millions
of reals (better .than five millions sterling), so that
in the interval between the 9th of September in that
year, and the 31st of July of the present one, being
less than eleven months, under the administration of Ca-
latrava and Mendizabal—the administration of the La
Granja revolutionists, especially patronised by Lord
Palmerston—the deficiency was increased by the
enormous sum of ten millions sterling, or nearly one
million sterling per month ! What has become of
the money is the question; for the armies of Christina,
as we know from the universal complaints, and the
statements of Espartero in answer to that old scheming
braggadocio Seoane, have been long left in arrear, as have
been all the civil functionaries who were not the parti-
ular favourites of the La Granja worthies—the Mi-