The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-31 00:00:00

LONDON :
THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 1539.

The Tories, with all the advocates of the Corn-laws,
particularly the Herald, may boast of having obtained
another triumph. The Destructives are gaining
ground. The inhabitants of Finsbury, or rather a
public meeting called by them, decided last night that
Universal Suffrage, as a matter of paramount neces-
sity, is to be demanded in preference to a repeal of the
Corn-laws. They came to this decision after hearing
some arguments in favour of that view, but they were
too predetermined, and too impatient to hear even
Mr. ROEBUCK, though favourable to Universal Suf-
frage, when he recommended them to unite and petition
for the repeal of the Corn-laws, sure that the Parlia-
ment would not listen to their prayer, as the best
means of still further developing the evil constitution
of the Legislature, and compelling the middle classes
to unite with those who demand Universal Suffrage.
The bulk of the meeting needed no additional proof
that no good whatever could be expected from the
Legislature, they loudly declared that opinion, and de-
manded Universal Suffrage, because they are thoroughly
convinced thatit is useless to ask and hopeless to expect
justice from Parliament. 'We have of late traced this
determination in so many quarters, and see all the
Journals in the empire, 'Whig, Tory, and Radical, so
systematically employed in decrying the Parliament,
one ridiculing its Tory and Aristocratic pretensions,
another mocking at its slight influence of Catholic,
Dissenting, and Democratic Members, and the third
stigmatizing it as wholly selfish and unjust, that the
conviction of its growing impotence and decay
is daily forced on us. The political authority
that is universally ridiculed and decried has
lost all substantial power. Accordingly the opi-
nion is fast gaining ground, and we have of late
heard it frequently repeated, that a fearful commotion
will await the country, if the Legislature do not, by a
manly and even generous exertion at the very com-
mencement of the Session, do something signal to
retrieve its character. It is, as we have more than
once said, placed on trial, the masses stand aloof from
it, and do not seek, on the subject of the Corn-
laws, to dictate to it, or to overawe it. From its
own free will, if it be not wholly evil, it may do the
act of justice imperatively required from it, wholly re•
peal the Corn-laws, and lessen the privations and dis-
content of the masses, in spite of their refusal to ask
for that blessing.

It is plain that the object of the bulk of the Fins-
bury meeting was to prevent any other resolution being
adopted but one favourable to Universal Suffrage. We
have heard that there are numerous parties in the
metropolis who have resolved that such shall always
be their conduct. One of the speakers last night ex-
pressly declared, very energetically, that the working
classes were resolved to have their rights, meaning
Universal Suffrage, though they used force to obtain
them ; and he signified that the middle classes might
expect determined opposition in all their political
pursuits from the working classes till they joined
with them in demanding Universal Suffrage. The
Universal Suffrage men are to coerce the other classes,
as it were, into their views. This is another proof,