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

SPIRIT OF T E PUBLIC ..1,; llit :N 1..")

We need hardly continue the task of impreeeing on
Reformers of every grade that they are hound to vote
for Mr. Leader. 'No man can he a sincere Rdonner
and vet vote for Sir Francis Burdett, who has aban-
doned ail the principles which obtained for him the
confidence of the electors of Westminster, mid who, if
returned, would be 'a thick-arid-thin opponent of
Reform Administneion. The question at is,oe is,
whether Reform cr Toryism shall Prevail. 'Whoever
votes fur Sir Francis is a Toty ; whoever reuses to
vote for Mr. Leader' lu,s no claim to the character of
a Reform.s. The Times begins to perceive that it
will be no easy matter for the Hon. Baronet to obtain
the suffrages cf the Refcnnets for a Tory, arid it
seeizs to place Sir George Murray's resignation in fa-
vour of S:r Francis Burdett to the account of per-
sonal favour, and not political principle. " Sir
Francis," !ays the apostate journal, " we repeat, is
unchanged" (as unchanged as the Times itself); and
'' and if any intelligent voter should be disconcerted
at the courteous consideration w hick Sir George
Murray has justly extended to him, it ought to be re-
collected that one of the finest compliments ever pro-
nounced on a Government functionary, was paid by
the Honourable Baronet to Sir GeorgeiNfurray when
the latter gentleman held the Colonial Seals under the
Duke of Wellington's Adininisiration. There is,
therefore, no inconsistency in their present relative po-
sitions to each other." This afterthought, however.
will not do. Let us hear Sir George Murray himself
on the subject. • After quoting in his Address some of
the Tory sentiments from S:r FranciS's letter to the
electors, he says---" It appears to me, therefore, that
if I was to place myself in competition with Sir Frien-
ds Burdett on the present occasion, I should seem to
discountenance in another those same principles upon
which I have rested my own claims to your sup-
port, and should give occasion probably to some
degree of disunion between persons professing nearly
similar sentiments ; affording, by that means, a very
important advantage to the supporters of political
opinions of a diametrically opposite nature." Sir
George considers Sir Francis Burdett's principles and
his own identical ; and as Sir George is a Tory, so is
Sir Francis. The Times may be assured that Sir
Francis may have the votes of the Tories, but he will
not have the votes of both Tories and Reformers.
Mr. George, Robert Dawson and Mr. John Wilson
Croker may call themselves Reformers, and they have
as good a title to the name as the Honourable Baronet
whom they honour with their patronage. The mcetiog
of Mr. Leader's supporters on Saturday night at
Saville house, Leicester7square, was numerous and re-
spectable, and some of the speeches excellent. -But we
must refer our readers to our report.—Morning
Chronicle.

The minority in the division on. the question for
postponing the going into Committee on the Irish
Municipal Corporation Bill, in the House of Lords,
on Friday weuld have been considerably in-
creased had the proxies of ten or twelve Peers been
entered ; amongst others, those of Earl Grey and
Earl Spencer. But Ministers had no notice of_ the
course which the Duke of Wellington meant to pur-
sue till he made his speech ; and no sane person could
have supposed that after agreeing to the second read-
ing of the Bill, he could have made so preposterous a.
proposition as adjourning the Couemittee on such ab-
surd ground; as those- put forward by his Grace for a
month. If the faction had intended to act fairly',
and in the spirit in which, according to Lord
Fitzgerald and Lord Wicklow, the Duke's pro-
pbsition was made, nothing could have been easier
than to have laid the amendments on the table,
printed them, and asked farther time for conside-
ration. - But it was quite clear that, fearing to dis-
please the more liberal MeMbers of their_ party by
throwing out the' Bill, and the more violent by conces-
sion, they had recourse to the intrigue of postpone-
ment for party objects, and to embarrass the Govern.
ment, and they thus sprung the mine without notice.
However, the Tories have fallen into their own trap.
The Government have the best opportunity of now
getting over all the former difficulties of their position
by declaring their determination to stick, under all cir-
cumstances, to the majority of the House of Commons.
A new era dates from this new practice of the House
of Lords, for whiCh there is no precedent in the history
of their Chamber. We trust that the House of Com-
mons will not abandon the vantage ground which the
Lords have given it by the blunder of Friday night
in the outset of the contest between the .two Houses,
A s•the cause of the Commons is just, it is of great im-
portance that they should carry the country with them
by the vindication of their course.—MornzKY (Aron.
We are tired of wasting words on Sir Francis Bur-
dett's claim to re-eleetion for Westminster. It in-
volves a question of fact; arguments arc useless ; so
obvious are the political considerations connected with
it, and so urgent are the claims for the most energetic
and instant co-operation of every Reformer. Sir
Francis. Burdett is now a Tory ; that is proved -•by
his own profession of faith and by the Tories who
adopt it, and rally round. him. It is important for
the Reform electors •to know whether they are voting
for an enemy or a friend.. That question being settled,°
there is no longer any room for wordy deliberation.
All that is requisite then is to buckle on our armour
and to commence the conflict of liberty with the
steady energy of men. That question is settled by
the letter from Mr. T. S. Duncomhe to Sir Francis Bur-
dett, on being asked to continue to vote in his favour
hich will he found in another column). It brings
the whole insidious pretence of Sir Francis Bur-
dett's unchangeability in Reform to practical issue. It
supplies a kind (?f- brief manual which every Reform
elector ought to address to Sir Francis before he gives
his vote. " You have always pledged yourself while
I followed your lerelership to support the extension of
the suffrage, vote by ballot, the shortening of the dura-
tion of Parliaments, the redress ef Irish grievances, the
abolition of corporal punishment in the army, and the
correction of Church abuses. Are you prepared to sup-
port them now iu Parliament or not ? We require an
explicit answer." It appears that Mr. T. S. Duncombe
has got an explicit answer, and Olaf is unsatisfactory.
There the matter rests as falr as his vote and interest are
concerned. Every Reform elector should demand a si-
milar explicit answer. If this had been done in the first
instance, much use:ess argument and much useful tinni •
ride ht have been spared. Mr. 'l'. S. Duncombe makes the
ground of his questioning, the suspicious circumstance -
of the Tory enemies of the above measures rallying
round Burdett. When such anti-Reformers as Castle-
reagh, Sinclair, Murray, George Dawson and Wilson
Croker approve of Sir F. Bnrdett's political sentiments
there is a printafacie case made out that Reformers
cannot approve of them. This, though a presumptive
test, is not the real test that is wanted, inasmuch as
all these raging ultra-Tories may have suddenly mine'
over to the standard of Reform, yand rallied round Sir
F. Burdett as its original champion and standard-
bearer. It would be almost miraculous, indeed ; but.
the conversion might take place, and the Reform inte-
rest not be the worse, except through the prejudice
indirectly derivable from the association of converted
bigots. But there is no escape from the probe which
Mr. Duncombe applies. It brings the matter to issue,
and no further words are requisite---" You have gone
farther than us, to whom you, in your first circular,
impute the (Hence of the movement.' You have
hundreds of times advocated Vote by Ballot, Universal
Suffrage, and Annual Parliaments. We have not been
so turbulently extreme as you have been. We no not.
want you to go quite so far. But will you vote for
shortened Parliaments, extended suffrage, and vote by
Ballot
,To this explicit questioning, Sir Francis re-
plies by referring to a speech, in which he denounces
the " movement," and declares himself in favour of
obstructive politics. The Reform Bill'has been carried,-
and he will do nothing farther. He refuses to carry
its principles, and to assist in obtaining from it those
fruits which are the six desiderataincladd in Mr. Dun•
comes proposition, and for which he gained his seat
for Westminster, by contending throughout the best
part of his political lire. He evades answering the
four chief queries, and the evasion is 'most eloquent.
To the question. of. Justice to Ireland, he replies with
contemptuous contumely. To the question Chtirch
Reform, he. Attil-ti;pis to reply by raisbag the cry or
" N., Popery." Not a word more is necessary to say
on the Subject of Sir Francis litirdett's real and exist-
ing pglitics. They are those of the furious ultra-