The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-24 00:00:00

And thus he works his way, through successive cen-
sures; to the emphatie conclusion above alluded to—
that by fluctuating policy, and not acting upon fixed
principle, they are inevitably ruined: That the lie-
viewer's tactics Would not he eqaally ruinous to his
party, we by no niedfis intend to assert. Out object is
to show that we did not pervert his meaning; but took
the passage before quoted, in strict acteedanee with the
spirit of the article. Whether the writer's plan of an
irregular warfare, reducing Sir Robert Peel front the
head of a disciplined corps to the occasional com-
mandant of a band of lawless Cossacks, will answer
their purpose, it is for them to consider. There is an
air of desperation in the very proposition. Such
loosening of the bonds of faction is the natural fore-
runner of a break-up. It confesses defeat, and fore-
bodes dispersion. According to the RevieiVer; the influence
of the Peel policy, in present circumstances, is to frus-
trate the effect of a Parliamentary victory (p. 508) ; to
leave the Monarchy the worse for a Ministerial defeat
(p. 500); to allow the destruction of the Constitutive
" the Parliament and the nation standing silent specta-
tors of the scene ;" to " confound the country,' end
" sully their character" (p. 51 1) ; and to demoralise,
debase, and harden the public mind (p. 512. Such is
the Tory estimate of the Tory leader. And yet they
:vould inflict on the country the calamity of having this
temporising, tricky, unprincipled, and inefficient leader
for its Prime Minister. And there are politicians of a
different class who would tolerate him also, in the hope
that the two parties would bid against each other for
popularity. It would be well to inquire whether office
would be more likely to make the Tories bidders for po-
pularity, by good measures than opposition. If in
the thousand and one tricks which they play for
the sake of regaining office, the expedient of popular
measures is wholly passed over, it would be little
likely to recommend itself to them whence once they
were seated on the Treasury bench. The expectation
is et variance with all experience. The penny post-
age question is alone sufficient to show its fallacy. After
the manner in which the Tory press backed out of
its previous declarations on this subject ; after the la-
boured sophisms of Peel in opposition to a change of
which he professed to recognise the beneficial charac-
ter ; and after the elaborate effort of the Quarterly Re-
view to damage a Reform when its adoption can no
longer be obstructed, it is quite clear that Toryism
holds very cheap. the credit of promoting any !Ilea.'
sure for the well-being of the community. It proceeds
on a different plan, and bids, not for popularity, but
for the support of sinister interests. In place, as in
opposition, when it wants more strength, it will bid
for bigots, it will bid for monopolists, it will bid for
ignorance and corruption ; but it will never bid for
the good-will of the people. We have a specimen of
the sort of liberal competition that may be anticipated
from it, in the fact that, the Whigs having made the
Ballot an open question, the Tory oracle declares, that
to vote for the Ballot is " regicidal."
(From the Morning Advertiser.)
We cannot too often repeat that we do not like the
calm which at present prevails in the political world.
`We fear it is of evil augury. We are apprehensive it
portends a coming storm, and such a storm as has not
burst on the head of the country for a long series of
years. It is clear that there ought not to be a calm
at the present moment. The elements of contention
and discord are more rife now than they ever were
at any previous period within the experience of the
present generation. The Liberal party are in office ;
but the Tories are moving heaven and earth to sup-
plant them ; and the friends and supporters of the ex •
isting Administration must admit that they retain
their situations by a very precarious tenure. Their
majority on one most important question towards the
close of last session, the question, namely, of a
national education, was only two ; while on various
other matters of the deepest interest, it was as small as
twelve, and on no occasion higher than about thirty.
Since then their general majority has been reduced,
owing to the favourable results—favourable, we mear,
to the Tories—of single elections, at which Tory machi-
nations and Tory corruptions almost invariably triumph.
Between the gains of the Tories in this way, and the
ten or twelve Membera of easy political virtue, who are
always ready to side with the party whom they suppose
most likely to prove the strongest, the prospects of the
Melbourne Administration are certainly not of a bright
complexion. They must enter on the approaching
Parliamentary campaign under disadvantages of very
formidable character ; and, need we say, that they who
have to fight under circumstances of a disheartening
kind—who feel that they are every moment liable to be
defeated—cannot acquit themselves with the spirit
and heroism of raen who are confident of victory ?
Why do we make these admissions? Why proclaim the
perilous position in which a Liberal Administration,
and, above all, the Liberal interest, are at present
placed ? Is it to dishearten the friends of the movemeut
cause ? Is it to paralyse their hands, or to caeca them
to slacken in their exertions in favour of their princi-
ples ? Our object is precisely the reverse. is is only
by being made fully aware of danger, that the requisite
precautions can be taken to escape it. What we aim
at is, to arouse the Reformers from the unaccountable
lethargy with which they have been seized, and under
which they have laboured for some time past. This
is not the time for supineness or inactivity. It
ever, on the contrary, there was a moment when the
closest union, and the putting forth of their greatest
energies, were requisite on the part of the Reformers,
the present is that moment. Again, we repeat, that
the existing calm is deceitful. It is impossible, with
parties so nicely balanced as they now are, both in the
Legislature and the country, that another session of
Parliament can pass away without some great political
changes. The hosts of Tory corruption will, beyond
all controversy, come into terrible collision with the
reable army of Liberals, and the result of the conflict
will be decisive either way. If the Tories triumph,
their triumph will be lasting. The Reform cause will
not only be weakened, but crushed, at least for a time.
The vanquished Liberals will become disheartened, and
when they may again rally their spirits, and sufficiently
recruit their forces to meet their opponents on the
battle-field with success, is more than we can tell. No
one can contemplate without feelings of the deepest
alarm the probable series of oppressions to which the
nation may, in such a contingency, be subjected before
the days of their domination shall have come to a close.
It is for the people of England to say whether the
Tories or the Liberals shall triumph in the approaching
contest. If they rally round the Reform party in the
Legislature, and support them with earnestness and vi-
gour, the triumph of Liberal principles is certain. If
they do not extend such assistance to their representa-
tives—if they do nut make common cause with them,
the Liberal cause will be trodden in the dust.
(From the Morning Herald.)
It will be seen by our Irish correspondence that the
much talked of Papist manifestation in Cork has com-
menced. This convocation of the Romish clergy has
been arranged, with a view, of course, to political ob-
jects. Mr. O'Connell will, undoubtedly, take his in.
structions from the men, who, after all, sustain him in
his desperate struggle against our Protestant institutions.
As to the repeal cry—that is supposed to be distasteful,
at the present moment, to the Romish priesthood. The
time is scarcely ripe for it. That cry if prolonged, must
force the Queen's Ministers into an attitude of anta-
gonism to the agitator ; and the Papists are not yet
ready to grapple with a Conservative Government.
(From the Morning Post.)
To bear modern Whigs talk as they sometimes do
alinut." principles," is enough to make a misanthrope
smile.- What can there be deserving the name of
,principle in men who seek popularity by asserting that
the most important institutions of the country have,
and ought to have, no other foundation than the ex-
isting national will ? If we call submission to the ea-
price or the temper of the day, even upon the most
material points of government, by the name of prin-
ciple, we shall only puzzle and confound that which
ought to be kept clear. There may be a principle of
adaptation to fluctuating circumstances, but even then,
the circumstances must be foreseen, and the mode of
dealing with them determined upon. The principle of
having no principle is an absurdity ; and yet this
would appear to be the fundamental policy of the
modern Whigs. But while these Whigs ftom time to
time assert that nothing in the State should be more per-
manent than the popular disposition respecting it,yet when
the popular disposition runs counter to their interests we
do not find any alacrity on their part to yield obedience
to it. And thus it happens that their course is always
tortuous and false. Nor is it possible that it should be
otherwise, so long as they profess that the popular will, or
public opinion, or the spirit of the age, or anything of
that sort, is the foundation of their policy. For it is
absolutely impossible that in a continuous course of