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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

We continue to give our daily account of gains and
losses- The Reformers have gained—
In Dublin . . . . O'Connell for West.
• . . . Hutton for Hamilton.
Carlow . . . Maule for Bruen.
Sligo
Roxburghshire .
And they have lost—
In Glamorganshire . Adare for Dillwyn.
Newry . . . . Ellis for Brady.
The loss of Wilson for Logan in West Suffolk is
equivocal. The rejected candidate supported Ministers,
it is true, on the Irish Corporation Bill ; hut he voted
against them on the questions of the Speaker, the
Church-rates, and many others. The Times admits
that the towns are favourable to Ministers, and that
the presumed re-action in favour of the Tories has
only exhibited itself among the agricultural popula-
tion. " There may," says our candid Contemporary,
" among the working classes in the towns be more
vivacity of intellect than is shown on the average
of occasions by the agricultural population. But
if there be greater sharpness of wit, there is also
greater profligacy of motive and violence of pas-
sion." The Tories have nearly had a monopoly ref the
voters actuated by profligate motives, for their harvest
has been reaped among the necessitous freemen in Li-
verpool, Norwich, Hull, &c. Of the respectable mid-
dle classes in towns, the far greater numbers are Re-
formers. These men have not only vivacity of intel-
lect, but independence, for it is only in large commu-
nities that public opinion can display itself. In large
towns men discover by times that union is strength ;
and as those who wish to profit by the plunder of the
people bear always but a small proportion to the
number of respectable citizens, intimidation can never
be exercised to any great extent. The opinions of the
middle classes in towns are, therefore, their own. But
in the rural districts not only are the agriculturists
without " vivacity of intellect," as the Times phrases
it, but they dare not use freely what intellect they have.
In all countries (with the exception of the United
States, where from the abundance of land the
labourer feels his importance), and in all times
the agricultural population have been poor in spirit.
The owner of the soil knows that the tenant at will
having his capital embarked in his farm cannot quit
his possession except at a ruinous loss, and he is
therefore emboldened to call on the farmer to adopt
his political opinion, and vote for the landlord's can-
didate. All attempts to form unions of farmers for
mutual protection against the unjust demands of land-
lords have hitherto failed. The tenantry of an estate
may know that should they all vote contrary to the
wish of the landlord, they could not all be ejected ;
but as no one of them can know whether he may not
be the man singled out for ejectment, they are all afraid
to display independence. Hence the prostration of
mind which prevails throughout the rural districts. In
the small towns there may be here and there an inde-
pendent voter, but except in times of strong excitement
it is only necessary to know the state of property in a dis-
trict to know how the electors will vote. The man who
tills the land of another is unecessarilv a slave. There are
some counties in which property is greatly divided, as in
Cumberland, the Wealds of Kent, some parts of York-
shire, and there the electors cannot be intimidated.
It will be seen that Mr. Hodges had large majo-
rities in all the districts where the race of yeomen still
exists ; and it will also be seen that the Cumberland
yeomen will eject Sir James Graham from the repre-
sentation of the eastern division of that county. But
these are exceptions to the general rule. The very
word civilization means what belongs to cities. In
cities all the arts which adorn life have their origin
and their seat ; and a nation is powerful in propor-
tion to the number of its town population, compared
with that of the rural inhabitants. Without large
towns agriculture even is never prosperous. England
is not the most populous country of Europe ; but it is
the most powerful, because though some countries may
be more populbus, yet her tep.vn population compared
with the country population is by far the greatest.
The present Ministry, therefore, have the sup-
port and approbation of the great majority of
Inhabitants of large, towns, who constitute the
strength of the nat ion. They hare with them
the independence, intellect, and power of the country.
But the Times tells ua, " That for Lord Melbourne
to stand will be impossible.' He has not merely to
fight the adverse votes in Parliament, but to encounter
the moral influence of that vast progress of Conser-
vatism out of doors which has been demonstrated both
by its growth within doors, and by the severe nature
of every elective struggle where it, has just failed of
succeeding." But Lord Melbourne will stand, he-
CaU3C he will have a larger majority than he had
in , the last Parliament, with a Court sincerely de-
voted to the cause of the people. The Conservatives
dare not attempt the public business of the country ;
arid if the Lords go on, session after session, rejecting
and mutilating every Bill for the improvement of our
laws and institutions, the people must see the cause of
the obstruction, and it would be strange indeed if
the Ministry suffered from a constant display of
motives by the Conservatives, so little creditable to the
party. The Conservatives, with die knowledge that
the late Court was favourable to them, made great pre-
parations for an election struggle. With the Court in
their favour, the exertions they have made during the
present election would have been intelligible. But un-
der present, circumstances the expenditure of " money
power and intimidation cannot by any possibility give
them a majority ; and it is, therefore, after all, worse
than thrown away. The patronage of the Crown re-
mains with Ministers. During the ensuing Parlia-
ment Ministers will gradually strengthen themselves
by a wise and judicious exercise of patronage. Being
without a large majority, it will be the more necessary
for them to be on their guard in respect to the mea-
sures they bring forward, and in the general conduct
of the Government. In another way, without intend- '
ing it, the Conservatives have strengthened Minis—
ters. It is notorious that one great difficulty of Mi-
nisters -.during the last Parliament was occasioned
by the extreme measures and opinions of the Move-
ment. But the Tories have on this election di-
rected their efforts chiefly against the advocates
of extreiee opinions, as if their great object was to
show that extreme opinions had become less popular.
A number of decided Radicals have in consequence
been thrown out, and, of those who have been re-
turned, many excellent men have been returned by
small majorities. The effect of all this may be fore-
seen without difficulty. Ministers will be left much
more at liberty to pursue their own course, and it will
seldom happen hereafter that the Tories in the House
of Commons will be able to boast that Ministers were
indebted to them for a victory over the Radicals. The
Tories, therefore, have spent their treasures and used
their power to prevent Ministers from having an in-
crease of ten or twenty in their majority, which in-
crease would have been chiefly composed of the
men whom they have always held up to the country
as a bugbear, and as the chief reason for dreading
Ministers. Like many other cunning persons, die
Tories have outwitted themselves. It is impossible
that the people of these kingdoms should be insensible
to the advantages of having a wise and moderate Go-
vernment, anxious only to promote the general welfare.
And all that Ministers have to do is to proceed in a
cool and steady course, despising factious opposition,
and trusting to the good sense of the country. The
more the Tories bestir themselves the more will they
lower themselves in the estimation of the country. By
and by, when the election bills have been all presented,
the Tories will find that they have paid a little too
much for their whistle. There is a proverb that too
much may be paid for gold ; and the Tories will have
leisure to ruminate on the folly of the idle swagger that
has cost them so much without bringing them one
whit nearer their object. Money spent at one elec-
tion does not render it less necessary to spend at an-
other.—Morning Chronicle.
It was said by a great commander, that English sol-
diers are awkward troops to deal with, because they
never know" When they are_ beaten. _The Whigs of the
present clay, though they have little else of the Eng-
lishapirit about them, are certainly entitled to credit
for some bare of this quality- They are notoriously
beet-et-I'in every part of the island, and not the slight-
est consciousness do they confess. They strut about
like victorious men, and carry their heads, if not with
all the dighity, jet with all the swagger of success.

But is their bearing altogether genuine ? Are they I
really as unconscious as they affect to be of their
actual position ? Are they really unaware that the
battle goes against them ? Amid the storm of blows
that now batters upon them from the cudgels of
the solid yeomanry of England, can they really
be without some feeling of the disgrace, or, which
they are likely to disrelish much more, of the
pain ? We are inclined to give them credit for
being somewhat less asinine. We suspect they have
a policy, such as it is, in all this simplicity of theirs.
They know that the majority of the people in our
whirling world are either too busy, or else too idle,
to inquire into the right or the reason of the rapid
events that sweep along before their eyes ; and, with
all that numerous class, the chances are, that the man
who is loud and persevering will hare credit for being,
in great measure, what he reports himself to be. Can-
dour, it has been said, is a very unprofitable virtue :
if a man admit himself to be in the wrong to-day,
people will be the snore ready to believe him in the
wrong to-morrow. This your cunning Whig bears
constantly in mind, and, like an expert offender as he
is, he has resolved that he never will be convicted on
his own confession. Accordingly he always gives an
excellent account of himself. He is not only the most
upright and the most able, but likewise, happily for
himself, the most thriving of men. Not only is his the
fittest party to govern the country, but, by a provi-
dential diffusion of discernment throughout the commu-
nity, that fitness is recognized by all the constituencies
of the kingdom. As to facts and figures, they are of
little avail against the thoroughgoing retainers of the
Whig-Radical cause. Hovvever true your shot, that well-
trained pack, like the dogs of the curtal friar in the combat
with Robin Hood, .will manage to glance the bolt aside.
" For whether the men shot east or west,
Or shot they north or south,
The curtal dogs, so taught they were
Caught the arrows in their mouth."
It was a pleasantry of Mr. Canning, who very well
understood this curtal genus of politicians, that, as
touching Parliamentary statements and returns, there
are two great axioms to be kept in view—first that all
facts are false, and second, that all figures are equally
true on the other side. And no doubt, in election

matters, as in other political affairs, there is hardly
any fact so dear but you may manage to cloud it a
little by suppressing part of its actual circumstances, or
by mixing it up with other matters which have no pro-
per connection with it ; and if the worst come to the
worst, and disguise becomes impossible, a good bold
broad flat denial will generally break you an outlet
through the difficulty. Then, as to figures, if the ba-
lance happen to appear against you, you have only to
embarrass the investigation by demanding deductions
of certain classes of items in the column on the
right hand, and claiming credit for certain allow-
aeces and alleged omissions in the column on the
!eft, every one of which credits and deductions lays
open a new field for assertion, contradiction and argu-
ment, and you will be more than commonly unlucky
if, after all that, you do not succeed in mystifying the
whole account sufficiently, at all events, to give your
own partizans an excuse for adhering to your calcula-
tion. Never have these mystifying arts been more
shamelessly practised than in the garbling of the cur-
rent election returns. But the results up to yesterday
may be summed in a few plain words, of which every
syllable is a death knell to the Ministry. On the
total balance on the English borough elections, gain
and loss, Conservative and Ministerial, the Conserva-
tives are winners of two. On a similar balance
of the English county elections the Conservatives
are winners of 15, thus gaining, in all, 17 to the
present hour. Of the remaining English county
seats, eleven possessed by Mlnisterialists are con-
tested by Conservatives, anti four possessed by Con-
servatives are contested by Ministerialists ; so that the
Conservatives standing to win eleven, and to lose by
any possibility but four, may fairly take credit for the
balance of seven ; which, added to the foregoing 17,
gives them a majority of twenty-four gains. Scotland
will perhaps add a seat or two ; but suppose her to re-
main unchanged. Then, the only diminution on the
English gain to the Conservatives will be their Irish
loss. The Minisserialists say, that in Ireland they
are sure of six seats ; very likely to gain two more ;
not unlikely to get another couple yet ; and that even
a total of twelve gains is not impossible. Let the
worst be true, and to what does it amount ? We will
answer the question in the words of a Sunday Whig-
Radical print :—" In this general election there has
been no enthusiasm for the principle of Reform. And
what is the probable result ? That the Melbourne
Parliament will be less favourable to Lord Melbourne
th mn time Peel Parliament. We say less on the assump-
tion that the Ministerial gain in Ireland will be as great
as their loss in England. For let it be well understood
beforehand, that a mere prolongation of the Irish tail
—a merely numerical majority in the Commons,
arising from an increase in the number of Mr.
O'Connell's followers—will, morally speaking, add
rather to the weakness of Ministers, than operate in
counteraction of the increased English majority against
them." In the sister kingdom, " where the disposal
of places is really all in all, Reform, as Lord Mill-
grave is called in Ireland, has not gone out of fashion.
But. for how much longer are the politics of England
and Scotland to turn altogether upon the hinge of a
merely Irish policy ? This election, we think, puts
an end to the system." " Lord Melbourne has played
all his trump-cards, including the Queen ; has dis-
counted all his advantages, and is worse off than be-
fore. It follows that his Irish policy, which was his
sole reliance, and which had all but failed him in the
Peel Parliament, will not be sufficient to maintain him
now. We put the case this morning to an out-and-
out Ministerialist, saying, ' Suppose your loss in
England to be as great as your gain in Ireland ?'
In that case,' he replied, 'the game is up.' So we
should think."—Times.

Our readers were'prepared by the intelligence we yes-
terday laid before them, for the glorious result of the
Dublin election, which terminated on the fifth day in
favour of O'Connell and Hutton. Never did the
faction make a more determined and desperate struggle
than here : it literally exhausted all its might, all its
machinations, and all its money, to prevent the en-
lightened and independent electors of Dublin from
having their opinions and wishes represented in the
House of Commons, but happily without effect. In
addition to the corrupt and infamous proceedings de-
tailed in our correspondence of the last few days, the
Orangemen, when they found the battle going against
them, attempted to poll a number of spurious freemen,
whom that detested and despised fraternity, the Dublin
Corporation, fraudulently invested with the franchise
subsequently to the dissolution of Parliament, for the
sole purpose of overpowering the Liberal voters in the
present election. This outrage, however, was pre-
vented by the Assessor refusing to receive the surrep-
titious votes thus attempted to be foisted on the
polling-book. And yet the conspirators who pro-
moted this attempt, who hired bludgeon men to pre-
vent the Liberal electors from proceeding to the
polling booths, who had men distributing bribes in the
open streets, now that all their villanies have been de-
feated, talk, as a last effort of impotent malevolence,
of petitioning against the return I Try it by all
means, gentlemen. If any cash remain in your hands
after the wholesale bribery you have ernploved in the
election, you cannot spend it more harmlessly, we
might say usefully, than in exposing yourselves to
further contempt and derision. It is worthy of re-
mark, that in all places wherein the greatest intelli-
gence and independence may be fairly supposed to
exist, the utmost efforts of faction have been insuf-
ficient to prevent the return of Liberal representatives.
Witness London, Edinburgh and Dublin, the capitals
of the three great divisions of the empire, which lead
the way in the paths of knowledge, and the improve.
ments of civilised life ; not a single Tory has been
suffered to disgrace their representation. This to a
great extent redeems the national character from the
obloquy in which the reverses sustained in other places
by Reform is calculated to involve it. But, let not
the cause of these reverses be misunderstood. Where
they have occurred in towns, we admit they have
been chiefly attributable to the electors not having the
integrity or appreciation of theirtrue interests to
resist the temptation of a bribe ; but in the counties
they are distinctly to be traced to the intimidation of
landlords, and in both cases to the want of the pro-
tection of the Ballot. To talk of re-action in favour
of Toryism, is to suppose the nation to be demented.